Victor BOIN

At the age of 2 years Victor Boin won a beautiful baby contest in Oostende. As a teenager, in 1903, he founded the first ice hockey club in Belgium and also became its first president. In 1906 and again in 1907 he become Belgian champion in 100 m as well as in 200 m freestyle swimming. He participated in the 1908 Olympics as a swimmer and water polo player, winning a silver medal in water polo. In 1912, he was fourth in the individual épée and won a water polo bronze medal. In 1920, he won another silver medal, this time in team épée fencing. Boin became famous as he was the first person to recite the Olympic Oath at the 1920 Opening Ceremony. He was also the Belgium flag bearer at the 1920 Opening Ceremony. His Olympic collections are preserved in the Flanders Sports Museum.

Boin worked as a sports journalist and theater critic and became a sports official. In 1913 he created the Belgian Professional Association of Sports Journalists and was also involved in the 1924 founding of the International Sports Journalists’ Association and was first Vice-President, and then President. Between 1955 and 1965 Boin was President of the Belgium NOC. In World War I, he enlisted in the Belgian Army in 1915 and joined a unit of trucks with machine gun cars, and later the Air Force as the personal pilot of the Belgian Queen Elizabeth, a Bavarian Princess.