Serge Reding

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Men's Weightlifting
Olympic medal record
Silver	Mexico City 1968	Heavyweight

Serge Reding (born December 23, 1941 in Oudergem – died June 28, 1975 in Manilla, Philippines) was a Belgian weightlifter, who was born as Serge Yvan Arthur Gérard.

Gérard was the name of his unmarried mother Adeline Gérard and his father was unknown. His parents were originally from the Belgian Ardennes (Herbeumont). When Ernest Reding married Adeline he adopted Serge and gave him his name.

When Reding was about sixteen years old he had his first contact weightlifting training. But he really started weightlifting in 1959, at the age of eighteen, when he entered the weightlifting club in Schaarbeek. His bodyweight was already 90 kg (198 lbs) at that time (length 172 cm). After three months training he entered his first competition. He made a modest total of 230 kg with 70 kg press, 70 kg snatch and 90 kg jerk.

In 1961 he was in the military service and competed in his first national championships but ended last. Shortly after this results he progressed a lot and took the national records. He started working in the national library in 1964. In 1964 he participated in his first Summer Olympics and became 10th in these Tokyo Games.

After these Olympic games Serge wanted to train more professional to get closer to the world top. In his search he met André Dupont, who became his new trainer. During a training camp in Poland in 1966 he met his first wife, Ewa Cernewska, who left him later on. He then stopped training for four months in 1967, which disturbed his preparations for the 1968 Summer Olympics a bit, but he nevertheless achieved a historical result by winning the silver medal in the heavyweight division.

The silver medal at the Mexico Olympics brought him a star image in his native country. In 1969 he earned the national trophy for best sportsmen ("nationale trofee voor sportverdienste"). (In 1968 and 1970 he finished in the runner up positions of this election.)

Reding's Olympic campagn at the 1972 Summer Olympics was disturbed by the terroristic attack on the Israelian team. Among the victims there was also a weightlifter. Reding therefore couldn't lift his starting weights in the qualifying heats and was elimintaed.

At the world championships in 1974 in Manila, Philippines, he once again captured the silver medal. During these shampionships he met the Manilan waitress Yvonne Solidum and fell in love. In the following years he traveled a lot between Belgium and the Philippines. In the beginning of 1975 he spent three months, without training in Manila, where he suddenly died from a hart-attack. His unusual appearance and even more remarkable love story lead to rumors in the Belgian media. They talked about a death under mysterious circumstances with even suicide and murder as possibilities. However, officially and most likely he died from a hart attack caused by a thrombosis.