Surgeloose made his first Belgian team, as a 19-year-old, at the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, where he qualified for the
men's 200 m freestyle. He cleared a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:49.36 from the Mare Nostrum Barcelona International Trophy in
Spain. He cruised to seventh place and thirtieth overall in heat five by a tenth of a second (0.10) behind Greece's
Andreas Zisimos in 1:48.92. At the
2010 European Aquatics Championships in
Budapest, Hungary, Surgeloose broke a new long-course Belgian record of 1:48.29 to round out the finale in the 200 m freestyle. Surgeloose's personal best and overhauling effort in the final propelled him up to the top 25 world rankings. At the
2012 Summer Olympics in
London, Surgeloose competed in both individual and relay swimming events. A year earlier, he posted a FINA B-cut of 1:48.96 (200 m freestyle) from the
World Championships in
Shanghai, China. In the
200 m freestyle, Surgeloose challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including three-time Olympian
Tiago Venâncio of Portugal and semifinalist
Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or of Israel. He raced to fourth place by six hundredths of a second (0.06) behind Venezuela's
Cristian Quintero in his personal textile best of 1:48.77. Surgeloose failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-fifth overall in the preliminaries. Surgeloose also placed twelfth as a member of the Belgian team in the
4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Teaming with
Pieter Timmers,
Dieter Dekoninck, and
Louis Croenen, Surgeloose swam the second leg with a split of 1:48.22 to set a Belgian record of 7:14.44 in the heats. At the
2016 Summer Olympics, he competed in the 100 m and 200 m freestyle events and helped Belgium's freestyle and freestyle teams into the final of both events. ==References==