Dubai resident Thomas Detry said that winning a gold medal at this year’s 2024 Olympic Games in Paris would ‘mean everything’ as he prepares to represent Belgium in the Paris spectacle.
The 31-year-old is already confirmed to represent Belgium, who are in 25th spot on the Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR).
He will be among a full field of 60 players in the Men’s Olympic competition which takes place from August 1-4.
As an amateur, Detry represented Belgium in numerous golf teams including the Eisenhower Trophy three times.
As a professional, he paired up with Thomas Pieters to win the 2018 World Cup of Golf.
In last week’s US Open Detry finished tied 14th on two over par with rounds of 69, 67, 76 and 70.
Detry now primarily plays on the PGA Tour and currently sits in 48th in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) and 22nd in the FedEx Cup Rankings.
Asked in an interview with the PGA Tour, what it would mean if he won a gold medal at the Olympics he said: “For Belgium, it would mean everything.
“When you think of golf, you don’t think gold medal because it only recently was re-added as an Olympic sport. So yeah, being able to bring a gold medal, I mean, it means everything.”
‘When you see how big of a deal it was for Justin (Rose) and Xander Schauffele to win that gold medal, I think it’ll be a true honour for my country and for myself and for everything. And I think it’s really something that’s on my bucket list.”
Detry has already had Olympic experience when he tied for 16th in the 2020 Summer Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Japan, during Covid.
Detry has played the venue at Le Golf National several times whilst competing on the DP World Tour.
Likely joining him on the Belgian team will be 24-year-old Adrien Dumont de Chassart, who is currently 45th in the OGR.
“I’m looking forward to really enjoying the full Olympics atmosphere. … I haven’t really experienced the (athlete) village. (I want to) enjoy some time off, and watch some other sports as well. I would really love to do that,” he said.
“I’m good friends with a couple of hockey players. Field hockey is a big sport in Belgium, so I’m really good friends with them,” added Detry. “So, I would love to go and see a couple of their games and I don’t know, tennis. Tons of different sports. I mean there’s so many different sports that, yeah, a bit of everything.”
ALSO READ