Piet Ollevier

Piet (also known as Pierre) Ollevier first appeared in the national Belgian wrestling scene in the late 1910s. A member of the Antwerpen Amateur Boxing Union (AABU) and the club run by Laurent Gerstmans at various points in his career, Ollevier was a well-known name in Belgian wrestling for two decades, and a national championship title winner. Selected to represent his country at the 1924 Paris Olympic Games, Ollevier competed in the middleweight freestyle tournament, defeating challengers from Italy, Switzerland, Great Britain and Finland to capture the silver medal and eventually become the first Belgian to win a medal in wrestling at the Olympic Games (Marcel Dubois won a bronze medal at the 1906 Intercalated Games, but these are not officially recognized by the IOC).

Ollevier continued to compete in domestic wrestling tournaments through to 1930, and also briefly ran his own Antwerpen-based club in 1927, Ollevier’s Worstelclub. He was selected once again to represent Belgium internationally in a wrestling match against France in 1928. His wrestling career ended in late 1928, after one of his legs was amputated following a workplace accident in which he was crushed by a 300-kilogram oil barrel. Ollevier relocated to East Flanders in the early 1930s to run another wrestling club, Kracht en Kunst, located in Merelbeke, just outside of Gent. Ollevier lived in De Panne and Ganshoren in his later years, and died in 1969. He was also a decorated veteran of World War I.