Max Houben (5 May 1898 – 10 February 1949) was a Belgian versatile athlete who competed from the early 1920s until his death at the 1949 FIBT World Championships. He won a silver medal in the four-man

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fede ...

event at the

1948 Winter Olympics The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games (german: V. Olympische Winterspiele; french: Ves Jeux olympiques d'hiver; it, V Giochi olimpici invernali; rm, V Gieus olimpics d'enviern) and commonly known as St. Moritz ...

St. Moritz St. Moritz (also german: Sankt Moritz, rm, , it, San Maurizio, french: Saint-Moritz) is a high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, at an elevation of about above sea level. It is Upper Engadine's major town and a municipality ...

, and was the oldest medalist at the Winter Olympics (48 years, 278 days) until

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Russ Howard Russell W. "Russ" Howard, CM, ONL (born February 19, 1956 in Midland, Ontario) is a Canadian curler and Olympic champion, based in Regina, Saskatchewan, but originally from Midland, Ontario. He lived in Moncton, New Brunswick from 2000 to 20 ...

won a gold medal in men's

curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics Curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics was held in the town of Pinerolo, Italy from February 13 to February 24. It proved to be the sleeper hit in terms of television ratings in Italy. According to a CBC feature, curling at the 2006 Winter Game ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

(50 years, 7 days).

Athletics career

Houben was national champion in the 100 m. He also made it to the quarterfinals of the 200 m event and the semifinals of the

4 × 100 m relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smalles ...

at the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

. Houben later switched to

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Fe ...

, in which he competed at the

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhano ...

–

, becoming the first Belgian to take part in both Winter and Summer Olympics.

Bobsleigh career

At the Winter Olympics, Houben earned his best finish prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

of fifth in the four-man event at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

. After the war, he earned two medals at the 1947 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz with a silver in the four-man and a bronze in the two-man event. He won his only Olympic medal in the four-man event the following year, also in St. Moritz.

Other sports

Houben played

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

Royale Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club (association football), football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, Belgium, Saint-Gilles, in Bru ...

1923–1925 and 1926–1929. He also competed in the 24 hours of Francorchamps endurance race in

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primaril ...

. He played for CS Verviétois in division one 1919–1923 and 1925–1926, division two in 1931–1936, for Racing CB in 1929–1931, Union SG 1923–1925 and 1926–1929, and played 190 games and scored 40 goals.

Death

Houben died during a practice run at the 1949 FIBT World Championships in

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsbur ...

, when his two-man sled catapulted off of "shady" corner at the bobsleigh track. Houben was killed instantly, while his partner Jacques Mouvet survived with a broken skull and a serious back injury. The Belgian team withdrew as a result. Following the accident the community of Lake Placid donated a trophy to the FIBT to be presented to the two-man bobsleigh world champions and named it in honor of Houben.Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, Inc. congratulates USA on World Championship successes
bodynbobsled.com. March 3, 2012

References

External links

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090127015546/http://sports123.com/bob/mw-2.html Bobsleigh two-man world championship medalists since 1931br>Bobsleigh four-man world championship medalists since 1930
– accessed 29 July 2007 * – Accessed 29 July 2007. *Wallenchinsky, David. (1984). "Bobsled". In ''The Complete Book the Olympics: 1896–1980''. New York: Penguin Books. pp. 558–60. {{DEFAULTSORT:Houben, Max 1898 births 1949 deaths Belgian male sprinters Belgian male bobsledders Belgian footballers Belgian racing drivers Olympic athletes for Belgium Olympic bobsledders for Belgium Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics Bobsledders at the 1928 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1932 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1936 Winter Olympics Bobsledders at the 1948 Winter Olympics Bobsledders who died while racing Sports deaths in New York (state) Olympic medalists in bobsleigh Medalists at the 1948 Winter Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Belgium Men's association football players not categorized by position People from Verviers Sportspeople from Liège Province