Memorial van Damme is an annual athletics event at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium that takes place in late August or early September. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the IAAF Diamond League.
It was first organized in 1977 by a group of journalists in honour of Ivo van Damme, a Belgian double medal winner at the Montreal Olympics who was killed the previous year in a car accident at the age of 22. A former footballer, he turned to athletics and in particular the 1500 m and 3000 m disciplines. Later on, he discovered the 800 m. In 1976, he took part in the Montreal Olympic Games, where he won silver medals in both the 800 m and 1500 m.
Famous quotes containing the words memorial and/or van:
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“[W]ith them we’ll beat little Van, Van, Van is a used up man.”
—State of Indiana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)