The “Memorial Van Damme” was organised in 1977 as a tribute to Ivo Van Damme, who died in a car accident at the age of only 22 years, after winning two silver medals at the 1976 Olympic Games. The meeting was set up as an event where Van Damme would compete as one of the great stars but it became a Memorial meeting for an athlete who died too young. 40 years later the meeting is still a brilliant event and it has become the final of the IAAF Diamond League.
At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Memorial, the documentary “40 years Memorial Van Damme, a memorable story”, looks back at the rich history and the development of the meeting. Major privileged witnesses such as Sebastian Coe, Sergey Bubka, Roger Moens, Vincent Rousseau, William Van Dijck, Cédric Van Branteghem, Kim Gevaert, Tia Hellebaut, Kevin Borlée and Wilfried Meert give their testimony.
Testimonials are given on the athlete Ivo Van Damme, on how the meeting started, the big highlights of the meeting – which include 14 World Records – and the value and the global impact of the meeting. The documentary presents unique anecdotes and archive videos of world class athletes such as Carl Lewis, Merlene Ottey, Michael Johnson, Yelena Isinbayeva and ranging from Usain Bolt to Dafne Schippers. “40 years Memorial Van Damme, a memorable story” is a portrait of a Belgian athlete and of a memorable meeting, but also a summary of 4 decades of high performance athletics in Belgium.
The documentary is an idea and a production of Golazo Sports, in collaboration with VRT Sporza and the VRT Video Archive. It is directed by Jan Vandermotte, interviews and storytelling are by Ruben Van Gucht.
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31 August, 2016
