Dieter lost his hearing completely after meningitis. Leendert has been hearing impaired since birth. Yet both athletes are undeterred. “I’m really looking forward to it. It really is a dream to participate in the Olympics,” says Leendert.
The Belgian delegation has a total of ten supervisors for nine top athletes, spread over five sports. Lieven Kind, also West Flemish, is delegation leader. He hopes for a first medal since 2005: “Our ambition is certainly to take home one medal of honor. If there are more, that would of course be fantastic.”
The athletes hope that their performance in Tokyo will lead to more attention and financial support for deaf sports in Belgium because so far they have paid for most of it themselves.