Why Jean-Claude Van Damme loves the Olympics

Though he just wrapped one movie and is also busy promoting "Expendables 2," action star Jean-Claude Van Damme will find time over the next two weeks to watch the Olympics. He talked to Fourth-Place Medal about how he likes the competition.

"We have all types of people, all types of countries, competing to be the best. Not out of anger, not out of jealousy. If you're jealous, you look in the rear-view mirror, and you'll have an accident. Being envious, you look at what's in front of you, and you beat it out of adulation. In that level, you forget about religion, you forget about anything else but to be victorious. Which is beautiful for the human race," Van Damme said.

Though taekwondo is in the Olympics now, it was not when Van Damme was growing up and competing in the martial arts. He never had the chance to try and compete for his home country of Belgium.

Now, he's not sure if kickboxing, the other sport he is known for, would make a good Olympic sport.

"For people to understand the techniques of kickboxing is very difficult if you're not inside the game. A lot of times with kickboxing, you only see the violence. You don't see the main thing of the fight. It looks violent on TV from the outside, but very peaceful and technical on the inside. Only the warriors understand that, and maybe it's too violent these days to be in good terms with the Olympics."

His Olympic-watching will not be limited to martial arts.

"I like to see K-1 [kickboxing], MMA, all those kinds of sports, but I also like volleyball, swimming, tennis. Of course, I trained in karate since I was 11, so that's my discipline. But the beauty in sports is to be determined and to have a goal to achieve."

The "Muscles from Brussels" will be cheering on his home country, particularly the judo athletes. Charlene Van Snick won the small country's first medal of 2012 in judo.

"The problem with the Belgian athlete is they love to eat chocolate, they are drinking too much beer, they eat waffles, and they love french fries!" he joked. "We have some good people in Belgium, even though we only have 7 million people."

Do you love the Olympics like JCVD? Make your picks here.

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