On December, 29th 1976 this news shocked Belgian sports : “Ladies and gentleman, may we have your attention for a special news report. The young athlete Ivo Van Damme died in a car accident this morning near Orange in the southeast of France. At the Olympic Games in Montreal he won silver medals at the 800m and the 1500m. A few days ago he received the National Sports Merit Trophy.”
Moens : “I think he had a premonition”
Roger Moens won silver at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. He considered Van Damme as his successor and took care of him as a second father. “Ivo played football in his early years, at Racing White Brussels. He was 1,91m tall, the ideal profile. He was fairly fast over 400m which he covered in 46,4 seconds. Those were the ideal credentials to become a good 800m runner.”
“When I arrived home on December, 29th 1976 I found a postcard in my mailbox, written by Ivo in Marseille on December, 22nd. It was posted the 23rd, but it arrived late due to Christmas days. It read as follows : “Best wishes and a happy new year’s eve. See you in 1977 … ? There was a question mark behind that phrase. That was not how I knew Van Damme. He was an optimist. I still can’t believe how he was able to write something like that. I think he had a premonition. There is no other explanation,” says Roger Moens who is apparently very moved.
Meert : “A non-Belgian personality”
Back then Wilfried Meert was an athletics journalist and he became the founder of the Memorial Van Damme, the annual tribute meeting in honour of Ivo Van Damme in Brussels. Meert is the meeting director since 40 years now and he admires the immense personality of Van Damme.
“He had a non-Belgian personality. Belgians prefer the role of the underdog, but he was exactly the opposite. He was massively self-confident to a stage that some considered him as arrogant. He set goals and he was convinced that he would reach them. ‘I want to be at the Olympics and make the final. I’m not going to the Games as a tourist. And in the final everything is possible.’ That’s how he spoke. Many would blame him for that, because they were not used to that level of confidence with Belgian sportsmen.”
Coe : “Impressed by the young Belgian”
Sebastian Coe won gold at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games and is now President of the IAAF. “Unfortunately I didn’t know Ivo personally. He was two years older than me and as far as I can remember we never competed against each other. But I observed his career with a lot of attention. As a 20 year old prospect I realized that I could make it in athletics and therefore I watched the Montreal Games with huge interest and saw Ivo win silver at the 800m and 1500m.”
“I was impressed by this young Belgian. My big contender in the United Kingdom was Steve Ovett and Van Damme had comfortably beaten him at the Olympics. If Ivo would have lived he would probably have been one of my biggest opponents. Maybe tougher than Ovett. It would have been a true challenge and we would have seen great battles on the track, but things went different.”
Verbeeck : “Ivo was my hero”
Bob Verbeeck was one of the best Belgian distance runners in the 1980’s. “I was literally struck by the death of Ivo. I was just 16 at that time and one of the talented youngsters at 800m and 1500m, Ivo’s distances … Ivo was my hero. Not just because of his performances and those Olympic medals, but rather for his personality. He made his dreams come true. And much more than that : he forecasted them. Ivo was unique in what he said and did and at once he was gone. Not only for me. For an entire generation of young athletes who adored him. For the Belgian athletics family, for all the lovers of sports. A number of kids have been named after him, that says it all.”
“I immediately agreed when Wilfried Meert asked me in 2002 to join the organisation committee of the Memorial Van Damme to make sure that the meeting would continue to develop and to become larger and more prestigious. We owe that to Ivo. His memorial photo that I keep in the upper drawer of my desk reminds me of that every single day.”
The testimonies in this article are copied from the program magazine of the 40th AG Insurance Memorial Van Damme and from the DVD '40 years Memorial Van Damme - A memorable story’.
<link internal-link internal link in current>The DVD can be ordered here >>
