• Weightlifting in Belgium
  History
  Statistics of  Belgian entries in World and  European Championships
  

The best known Belgian weightlifter is Serge Reding, who collected several World and European medals. On the Olympic Games in Mexico 1968 he even collected a silver medal.

But already on the first World Championships ever, 1891 in London, the Belgian Arthur François got a bronze medal. This bronze medal result was repeated by Gustave Empain in 1903. 

In the Athens Olympics of 1906, when the weightlifting event consisted of the two handed lift and one handed lift, Marcel Dubois became tenth.

On the Olympic Games in 1920 in Antwerp the Belgian weightlifter François de Haes became Olympic champion in the -62kg (60+65+90) . François Haes became already European champion in 1898 and 1900 (without weight classes). In 1922 he even put the world record clean and jerk on his name with 122.5 kg in the light weight class -67.5 kg!  

In the Olympics of 1924 in Paris several Belgians lifted, A. Maes 13th in -60 kg, G. Butter took 10th place in -67.5 kg (65+75+72.5+82.5+110), N. Horsch 20th in -75kg, F. Verdonck 17th in -82.5 kg  and G. Bernart made 9th place in +82.5 kg (70+80+95+95+125).  
In Amsterdam's  Oympics of 1928 Belgium also had a few participants with Jan Van Rompey being the only one  finishing in top 10 with  8th place in -75kg (92.5+85+115). F. Renier ended 11th en A.F Maes 17th in -62.5 kg, M. Vandergoten 11th place in -75kg and J. Vandergoten 13th in -82.5 kg.

In the  "modern weightlifting" (after second world war episode) Robert Allart was the first Belgian lifter to compete in Olympic Games, finishing 7th in the London Games of 1948 in the +82.5 kg class with 377.5 total (122.5 press, 110 kg snatch and 145 kg jerk). In the combined European & world championships of 1949 in "Den Haag" (Netherlands) he captured the Worlds bronze medal and the Europeans silver. A certain Hugo Huyghe collected the bronze medal in the -67.5 kg class at these Europeans.  

In 1956 Willy Claes became 9^th at the Melbourne Olympic games in the -82.5 kg class (107.5+112.5+137.5). In the 1960 Olympics of Rome he became 8^th in the same bodyweight class (115+120+155).  

In 1964 it was Serge Reding's time to appear on the international stage. He conquered his first medal, a bronze in total at the European championships and at the Tokyo Olympic Games he became tenth in the superheavyweight class +110 kg (167.5+130+180) in the same year 

After taking the silver medal at the European championships of 1968 he also collected the silver medal on the Olympic Games in Mexico 1968. He couldn't make any valid press lifts at the 1972 Olympics of Munich.

In 1969 on the European Championships Reding won the gold medal (while  J. P. Vanlerberghe placed 4^th in total). In 1969, 1970 and 1974 Serge Reding conquered the silver medal in the World championships. In 1974 he also took the total bronze in the European championships.

In the 1970 World Championships in Colombus (USA) 1970 J. P. Vanlerberghe managed to snap the silver medal in the press (he placed again 4^th in total). He also competed in the -90 kg class at the Montreal Olympic Games 1976 and became 10th (150+177.5). 

At the 1980 Olympics in Moskow Belgium had three lifters. Joseph Chiapparo lifted in the lowest class -52kg and became 12th (90+110). Serge Van Cottem (-82.5) and Hugo De Grauwe (-90) both made no total.

François Demeure was the only Belgian to catch medals in the junior division. At the European Junior championships 1993 he earned the bronze jerk and total medal and one year later he repeated the bronze total and added a silver in the jerk. In 2000 he competed in the Sydney Olympics in the -69 kg class were he became 12th (140+170).

Ingeborg Marx, a former world champion powerlifting, converted to weightlifting when female lifting became Olympic. She was the first woman to take a medal by ending third in the clean and jerk of the 2000 European Championships in the -58 kg class (80+110), and in the  Sydney Olympics she finished 11th (77.5+100).

The last Belgian medal came recently for Tom Goegebuer, with a bronze in snatch and total at the European senior Championships 2008. Tom Goegebuer also holds the record number of participations in European (10 consecutive till 2008) and World Championships seniors (7 consecutive till 2008). In 2008 Tom Goebuer became 13th in the Beijing Olympics.

Belgian participants at the European Championships Juniors since 1990:

Belgian participants at the European Championships Youth since 1990 (start)

Belgian participants at the World Cup Students since 1998 (start):

Belgian participants at the World Championships seniors since 1970:

Belgian participants at the European Championships seniors since 1990:

The Belgian Weightlifting federation

Al the federations have responsibilities in weightlifting as well as powerlifting. Most of the affiliated Belgian clubs provide accommodation for both weightlifting and powerlifting. 

 There are records for each federation in the officially recognized international categories.

Belgian Weightlifting Minima:      

- Male & Female (KBGV) limits :

Minimum performances that have to be achieved to compete in the National, European and World Championships.

Belgian Weightlifting Records:

The recent weightlifting records only go back to 1998.
In the past the previous records were (internationally) 'frozen' a few times for several reasons.

So there are three periods of (modern) weightlifting records:

1969-1992 (actually theoritically some of those records can go back further if the bodyweight category already existed and the records were never broken)

1993-1997 (rearranged bodyweightclasses)

1998-now (less and new bodyweightcategories)

All records on the record page

 Copyright © Tom Goegebuer                                   last update: 2010-01-16