- OLIVIA, JONATHAN, KEVIN & DYLAN BORLEE
The Borlée family has continued to remain in a class of its own, with all four athletes in the clan: Olivia (30), Kevin (28), Jonathan (28) and Dylan (23) competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The quartet is trained by their father Jacques, who is a former Belgian athlete. Rio 2016 will be the third outing at the Olympics for the oldest in the pack, Olivia who will compete in the women’s 200m.
She will also serve as Belgium’s flag bearer in Rio. Olivia has Silver and Bronze medals in the 4x100m from the Beijing 2008 Olympics and Osaka 2007 World Championships. She qualified for the Games after clocking a time of 23.02s earlier this year, but could only compete in the heats of last month’s European Championships due to an injury.
National Record (NR) holder in the 400m (44.43s), Jonathan will be going for the 200m/400m in Rio, as well as the 4x400m. He placed 6th at the London Diamond League last month in 45.63s. His outing at the European Championships was less than impressive as he finished 7th in the heats of the 400m. His twin Kevin advanced to the final where he was 4th in 45.60s.
The brothers however regrouped in the 4x400m, with Jonathan, Kevin, Dylan and Julien Watrin racing to GOLD after setting a Season’s Best (SB) of 3:01.10 to finish ahead of Poland (3:01.18) and Great Britain (3:01.44). Kevin will be going for the 400m (44.74s) and 4x400m, while Dylan will only compete in the 4x400m in Brazil.
However, he also featured in a number of 400m races this year. He won the event at the Mannheim meeting in Germany where he posted 45.98s. The three brothers will be hoping that their partnership in the 4x400m at least yields them a medal in Rio, after winning Bronze at the 2015 World Relays in the Bahamas.
Photo Credit: Borlee Family Official Facebook Page
