Olivia Borlée (born 10 April 1986 in

Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Woluwe-Saint-Lambert ( French, ) or Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe ( Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. In common with all of Brussels' municipalities, it is legally bilingual (French–Dutch). In French, ...

) is a retired Belgian sprinter who specialized in the

200 metres The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slight ...

. Her personal best time in the 200 is 22.98 seconds, achieved in July 2006 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. She has a personal best of 11.39 seconds in the

100 metres The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at ...

. She won a gold medal in the

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky i ...

at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

with teammates

Hanna Mariën Hanna Emilie Mariën (born 16 May 1982) is a Belgian retired athlete and bobsledder. As a sprinter, Mariën specialized in the 200 metres and won gold in the relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Mariën later became a bobsleigher, competing fo ...

Élodie Ouédraogo Élodie Ouédraogo (born 27 February 1981 in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode) is a retired Belgian sprinter of Burkinabé descent, who specializes in the 200 metres and 400 m hurdles. An Olympic gold medalist, her personal best time in the 200 m is 23 ...

, and

Kim Gevaert Kim Gevaert (born 5 August 1978 in Leuven) is a former sprinter and Olympic champion from Belgium. Career Her closest brush with a world title came in running four hundredths of a second behind three-time champion Gail Devers at the 2004 IAAF ...

in a time of 42.54 seconds, which set a new Belgian record.

Sport career

Borlée represented Belgium at the 2008 Summer Olympics in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. She competed at the

4 × 100 metres relay The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners must begin in the same stagger as for the indiv ...

together with Gevaert, Mariën and Ouédraogo. In their first round heat, they placed first in front of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. Their time of 42.92 seconds was the third fastest time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result, they qualified for the final in which they sprinted to a time of 42.54 seconds and 2nd place behind

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

but in front of Nigeria to take the silver medal, missing out on the gold medal by 0.23 seconds. However, one of the Russian runners, Yuliya Chermoshanskaya, was later found to have used two banned

performance-enhancing drugs Performance-enhancing substances (PESs), also known as performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), are substances that are used to improve any form of activity performance in humans. Many substances, such as anabolic steroids, can be used to improve at ...

, resulting in the Russian team's disqualification, thereby promoting Belgium to the gold medal position. Borlée was officially presented with the gold medal eight years later on September 10, 2016. Borlée represented Belgium at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. She competed in the 200 metres event. She finished 7th in her heat with a time of 23.53 seconds. She did not qualify for the semifinals. She was the flag bearer for Belgium during the Parade of Nations. She retired after the Rio games.

Fashion career

After retiring from professional sport, Borlée and Olympic teammate Elodie Ouedraogo teamed up again to found the sustainable sportswear brand 4254, named after their Olympic medal-winning time. The brand won the Emerging Talent of the Year at the 2018 Belgian Fashion Awards.

Borlée family

The progenitor of the Borlee family is

Jacques Jacques or Jacq are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related t ...

, bronze medalist at the 1983 European Indoor Championships in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

200 m The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a Sprint (running), sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run th ...

, while his first wife Edith Demaertelaere was a good sprinter with a personal best of 23.89. Six of his seven children are athletes (the first five born from the first marriage with Edith, the last two born from a second marriage). The eldest daughter Olivia won the gold medal at the Olympics and the world bronze at the 2007 Osaka World Championships with the

and the other daughter Alizia was also a decent sprinter. The four sons are all

400 m The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

specialists, the twins Jonathan and

Kevin Kevin is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; ; ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicised from , an Irish diminutive form.''A Dictiona ...

, both Olympic finalists in

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, Dylan and the youngest Rayane. In addition, Jacques' older brother Jean-Pierre was also a sprinter.

Achievements

References

External links