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The Allianz Assembly Van Damme Memorial is without doubt one of the most necessary meets of the season. I liked going to King Badouin Stadium and having fun with the environment and the gang. I needed folks to recollect who the meet honors, and that’s the late Ivo Van Damme, certainly one of Europe’s most promising athletes.
So, I went into the archives and pulled this gem by David Hunter, senior author, on the late Ivo Van Damme. I hope you take pleasure in it.
And notice that 39 World Champs gold medalists will likely be in Brussels for the assembly on 2 September 2022 as a part of the legacy of the silver medalist at 800m and 1,500m from Montreal 1976.
Reposted August 30, 2022
Reposted September 1, 2017
Up to date December 29, 2016
Forty years in the past at the moment, Ivo Van Damme was killed in an auto accident. He was the hero of a nation, and his silver medals in Montreal within the 800 meters and 1,500 meters made the tall, sturdy, gutty Belgian an athlete on the cusp of stardom. Right here is the piece accomplished by David Hunter on this high quality athlete.
For Belgium, Van Damme’s untimely loss of life in an auto accident in December 1976 extinguished a budding legacy for Belgian middle-distance operating on the time. The Van Damme Memorial, managed by mates of the late athlete, is a becoming tribute to a high quality athlete. David Hunter bought it proper: for Belgium, Ivo Van Damme was their equal of Steve Prefontaine.
Ivo Van Damme was an excellent Belgian runner whose life was reduce quick a yr after the loss of life of Steve Prefontaine. Van Damme, as one will discover out, was not the “standard Belgian”. Van Damme was the silver medalist within the 800 meters and 1,500 meters within the 1976 Montreal Olympics. His loss of life, within the Christmas season of 1976, was a shock to his countrymen.
Dave Hunter wrote this piece after his go to to the Van Damme Memorial, a meet established within the honor of the fallen Belgian runner.
Belgium’s Pre
Ivo Van Damme Continues To Encourage
October fifth, 2014
Within the mid-70s, America’s monitor & subject neighborhood misplaced Steve Prefontaine – a beloved and fearless runner who had captured the creativeness of those that love the game. The Olympian died far too younger, the sufferer of a tragic automobile accident that took his life nicely earlier than his time. The nation generally – and monitor & subject followers particularly – mourned his untimely passing. His status in loss of life – maybe surpassing his status in life – has been burnished over practically forty years. His accomplishments have continued to encourage future generations of American monitor hopefuls. And to this present day, he’s revered as a competitor nearly with no peer. His homeland hosts a Diamond League meet – arguably the very best one-day gathering within the nation – which is called in his honor.
However america shouldn’t be the one nation that has endured one of these stunning, premature loss and someway discovered a technique to enshrine the reminiscence of its champion for future generations.
Belgium has as nicely. And the similarities between the abbreviated careers of Steve Prefontaine and Belgium center distance star Ivo Van Damme, the occasions surrounding their deaths, and the way their respective nations and fan bases responded to their loss are eerie certainly.
Van Damme’s ascension as a world-class center distance runner started after the ’72 Olympic Video games. His 1:48.16 4th place end within the 800m closing within the ’73 European Junior championships garnered consideration. And in 1975, when Van Damme clocked 1:45.31 to erase Roger Moen’s 20-year-old Belgian 800m file of 1:45.7, the younger athlete started to earn broad recognition as a possible Olympic medalist. Van Damme rode that momentum into the Olympic yr, setting a brand new Belgian nationwide mark within the 1500m of three:36.26 in the summertime of ’76. The file would stand for 20 years.
Brimming with confidence that summer season, Van Damme – scheduled for an 800m/1500m Olympic double-headed to the ’76 Montreal Video games after asserting, “To beat me (within the 800m) will take a world file.” His declaration proved prophetic.
Within the ’76 Olympic 800m closing, Alberto Juantorena proved simply too sturdy. El Caballo – who later would go on the win the 400m gold medal as nicely – powered his technique to an Olympic 800m victory. The Cuban’s profitable time of 1:43.50 set a brand new world file as Van Damme captured the silver and set a brand new Belgian nationwide commonplace with a 1:43.86 clocking – the third quickest 800m time ever. A number of days later, Van Damme discovered himself within the 1500m closing in opposition to a stacked subject that included mile world file holder John Walker – the primary man to interrupt 3:50 within the mile. The strategic early tempo favored the Belgian 800m specialist. However a mid-race field within the bunched subject impeded Van Damme and allowed the artful Walker to get away early in his drive for the road. After lastly escaping the congestion, Van Damme’s stretch run can up just a bit quick because the Kiwi’s profitable time of three:39.17 held off the second place Van Damme by .10 seconds.
The 22-year-old Belgian returned house with two Olympic silver medals after having been nipped by two of the best middle-distance racers of all time. And simply as Prefontaine’s brave closing lap in Munich 5000m closing, which simply missed a medal, prompted hopeful hypothesis that the American can be on the rostrum on the subsequent Olympics, related hope arose that Van Damme may seize gold in Moscow. The youthful Belgian medalist didn’t downplay such considering, stating that higher issues would come within the subsequent Olympic Video games. Van Damme’s future regarded shiny certainly.
However an car accident would change all of that. Simply as Pre’s deadly one-car crash in late Could of 1975 denied him one other Olympic look, Van Damme – driving house from a coaching facility in southern France – was concerned in a horrific head-on collision proper earlier than Christmas 1976, taking his life and extinguishing his dream of future Olympic glory.
Like Prefontaine, Van Damme is revered in his homeland. The Memorial Van Damme – the concluding and maybe one of the vital celebrated gatherings of the annual Diamond League collection – is devoted to his reminiscence. Pre-meet festivities in Brussels’ King Baudouin Stadium – full with marquee performers encircling the monitor on the again of convertibles – embrace solemn recognition of the Belgian center distance star’s accomplishments and his premature demise. As is the case with Pre in America, Van Damme’s legacy continues to this present day to encourage a completely new technology of Belgium athletes reminiscent of sprinter Kim Gavaert, ’08 Olympic excessive bounce champion Tia Hellebaut, and the Borlee siblings.
Practically 4 a long time in the past, each america and Belgium have been shocked when every misplaced certainly one of their most colourful and completed monitor & subject heroes. But by means of all of it, each nations discovered strikingly related methods to rejoice the lifetime of their fallen star. And ultimately, the Prefontaine Traditional, the Memorial Van Damme, and the accomplishments of the monitor & subject performers Prefontaine and Van Damme proceed to encourage will be the most becoming tribute to those two nice athletes.
~Dave Hunter
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