Paul De Weert - born in Antwerp (Belgium) on 27 November 1945

Took part in miscellaneous rowing and sculling competitions: 1x, 2-, 2+, 4-, 4+, 8+. No less than 27 times did he win the Belgian championship and he participated in the 1972 (Munchen) Olympics in 2+ DE WEERT-VAN HERCK c. DEFRAIGNE and to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal in 4- (GHOOS, DE DECKER, JORDAENS, DE WEERT)

Took part in almost all Belgian, European and World championships, where he did perform rather well from 1964 to 1976

In 1964-71 he rowed for the RARC (Royal Antwerp Rowing Club)

Career           

1964                

1966                 

• World championship in Bled (Yugoslavia)  4+ with DE WEERT-DE BLOCK-DE BIE-TRENTELS
• Received by Pope Paul VI at the Vatican on rowing at Castel Gandolfo (Italy)

1970                 

• World championship in St. Catharines (Canada).  DE WEERT-VAN HERCK-st.DEFRAIGNE GUY, trainer Jacques Defraigne.
• Affiliated with the Ghent club

1971

• World championship in Prague in 2+ DEWEERT-VAN HERCK. Participated in the finals (where the world champions of the day were beaten).

1972                 

• Affiliated to an Antwerp club: ARV (Antwerpse sculling club)
• Took part in the Munich Olympics.  Coxless pair DE WEERT-VAN HERCK

1973

• Sculled in a coxed pair DE WEERT-DE DECKER establishing a new European lane record.  Finalist in Henley, Luzern and at the Moscow World Championship

1974

• The ARV coxed eight (GHOOS, DE WEERT, DE DECKER, JORDAENS, DE COSTER, PEDRAZA, CORDEMANS, MASURE en stuurman JONES) won the THAMES CHALLENGE CUP te Henley

1976

• Paul was selected for the Montreal Olympics in the coxless four (GHOOS, DE WEERT, DE DECKER, JORDAENS)

1981

• The first drawings of the rowing bike were made. In 1981 Paul introduced the first patented prototype on the market

1996

• Paul bikes non-stop with the the high-frame type from Paris to Amsterdam (540 KM).

1997

• On a low-frame rowing bike Paul crossed the whole depth of Norway, from Trondheim to Oslo (560 km) without stopping even once and reaching speeds of up to 90 k.p.h

Between 1972 and 1976 they sculled several times in Miami, Florida.  Paul participated in his last race in the seniors’ category in 1982.  In the subsequent years Paul coached Belgium’s rowers until 1985, when his rowers Pierre-Marie De Loof (B.T.R.) and Wim Van Belleghem won several medals at the World Championships and the Olympics. Paul still rows 10,000 k a year on his rowing bike and occasionally still takes part in a skiff Masters event.

He lives happily with his wife Christel (in Edegem, Belgium)