Belgian Tom Goegebuer, European Champion 2009 was born in Ghent, 27th of March 1975, the year that Serge Reding, the most successful Belgian lifter died.

  Tom Goegebuer, European Champion:
my only goal is to enjoy what I am doing

What do you consider as your biggest achievement in your career?

 "That is a difficult question. Of course my European title and my participation in the Olympics will stay unforgettable great memory, but maybe my biggest achievement is to have been on an international level for so many years.My European title 2009 was also my 11th consecutive participation in the senior European championships."

How is it to have your father coaching you?

 "My father has always been next to me in my career, so he really knows me very well and I have 100% faith in his coaching decisions and that is very important. The disadvantage is that a father is usually very protective and not willing to take much risks, but I guess it is also the reason that I have been relatively free from injuries."

Richard, as father and coach of Tom Goegebuer, can you tell us about the start of Tom's career?

 "I had been a weightlifter at national level for years, so Tom has always been in contact with weightlifting. Even as a young kid Tom wanted to try weightlifting himself. But besides some playing with an empty broomstick I wanted him to wait with serious weight training till he got a bit older.
Being promised to get his chance when he turned twelve, my son filled his time with a lot of other sports, like running, swimming, windsurfing, cross-country skiing, gymnastics.
When he finally turned twelve, he enthusiastically started training in the summer of 1987 or his home club Royal Olympic Ghent.
At an age of 15 years old he managed to break his first national record (58 snatch in the -44kg), and from then on he haunted for all the other national records in his bodyweight classes and different age groups.As Tom had always been a good student, the first concern was to get a good education, so in 1993 he started to study physics at the University of Ghent, and he continued it successfully with a master degree in medical radiation physics in 1999.
So these years were very hard to combine with weightlifting and he had to drop a lot of international competitions and trainings sessions but he continued lifting and in 1997 he competed for the first time in the Senior World Championships (Chiang Mai- Thailand) with a 16th place as a result in the -59kg class (107.5 snatch & 137.5 kg Jerk)."

How did his career continue after the studying period at university?

 "After finishing his studies in 1999 he started working half-time as a medical physicist (doing quality controls of Roentgen equipment in hospitals), which wasn't easy to combine either, but at least it made it possible to train again regularly on a daily base.
As a result he progressed a lot and in November 1999 he was able to make a 270 kg total in the world Championships in Athens (Greece). As a 280 kg total would bring him to the 2000 Olympics, he started to train as hard as possible and after making 277.5 kg in training our goal became near.
Luck was not with him, and with an inflammation of the hip tendon he couldn't bring a total in the European championships 2000.
In 2002 he got injured in the back (spondylo lysthesis) which bothered him slightly for a few years, so he was again unable to fulfil his dream and qualify for the Olympics in 2004.
  As Tom has never given up easily, he came back strong in 2005 with national records in the -62 kg class of 127.5 kg snatch and 155kg clean&jerk."

It must have been difficult to reach this level without much external support?

 Tom Goegebuer: "I am very proud that we managed to reach this level, by learning our selves. I could never count on experienced trainers or coaches, we never had training camps, we just participated, opened our eyes and learned everywhere we came. By now, I think we have reached a training and competition knowledge that is comparable with the one from big weightlifting countries.
My weightlifting career wouldn't have been possible without the support and help from some people.
My parents have put awfully lot of their lifetime in my weightlifting, but also invested quite much in it. They built a training room in my elderly home so I was able to combine my school with weightlifting, they paid my trips to international competitions till I got the support from the national sport institutions.
It is also very typical for weightlifting that the atmosphere between countries and lifters is very good, so usually they are very willing to help. So I am also very grateful to the French federation for allowing me to train from time to time with their national team."

At an age of  30, didn't he start to think about ending his career?

 Richard Goegebuer: "Tom had competed in many European championships and World Championships, but he desperately wanted to qualify for the Olympics so he set his mind on the 2008 Olympics."

We know he succeeded in fulfilling this dream, but can you tell us, what he did in order to achieve this?

 "In 2007, at the age of 32 Tom was for the first time fully supported to train like a professional by the Belgian government and Olympic committee, and he started to train twice a day with his mind fixed on competing in the Olympics.
At his age and inexperienced as he was in this kind of training, he seemed to have been overtraining a bit and the expected results didn't show up in competitions.
As a result he was dropped out of the Belgian Olympic team end of 2007.
But again my son couldn't accept that setback so he decided to do what everybody considered as impossible.
He had always been a skinny lifter and all attempts to gain some bodyweight never succeeded so Tom himself had been playing with the thought of going down to 56kg class.
As he had already a very low fat percentage and seemed much to tall for a 56 kg lifter, nobody seemed to give him a chance, but as he had no other choice he decided to go for it. I must admit that even I didn't believe he could be successful in this but I supported him and after a very hard and strict diet of  7 weeks he competed for the first time in the -56 kg class in November 2007 with 4 good lifts and an internationally good 250 kg total (113 snatch and 137 kg jerk), which put him back in the Olympic team.As the Belgian Olympic committee had asked a 253kg total at the Europeans in order to be selected for the Olympics (besides fulfilling the international criteria), this was his only goal in the European Championships 2008. Unfortunelately his all or nothing tactics didn't work and he made only his starting attempts of 111 snatch and 133 jerk.  But in the end it turned out that this was worth a silver medal, the first senior medal for Belgian since Serge Reding's in 1974.
With this result the Belgian Olympic committee selected him for the Games.
Tom made six good lifts and ended with a national total record of 251kg and a 13th place, so we were very happy".

Tom added another climax to his career at the 2009 European Championships.

 "Ooh yes, we never expected it. But we stuck to the plan to enjoy every lift on the platform, and again Tom was able to do all his lifts and capturing the European title with new national records (115 kg snatch and 252 kg total). Unforgettable moment!"

How do you explain your latest successes?

Tom Goegebuer: "First of all, I have never been able to push my progress to the limit, cause I was studying and working. Another reason is also that I kept learning, my technique became better, my training method but most of all dealing with the competition stress. Since I'm satisfied with my career, my only goal is to enjoy what I am doing and this makes me much more effecient on the platform. The third reason, I probably have to thank the WADA and the IWF for the efforts they do in making a fair competition." 

What do you like about weightlifting and what are your future plans?

 "I like the complexity of the sport. It requires so much physical and mental skills; coordination, power, determination, concentration but also intelligent training and being able to perform under the enormous pressure of knowing that everything is decided in six attempts of about a second.
Even after 22 years of lifting I can still learn on each aspect and it is still giving me a lot of joy, though the training starts to be a bit painful.
If my body allows me I would like to continue on the highest level till the next Olympics, but I love lifting to much to quit. As long as I can I will keep training.
Another thing I like about weightlifting is the friendly atmosphere between the members of the "weightlifting family". I have been invited and received well by lifters in so many countries. I have made friends for life and I believe this is very exceptional in top sport.

I hope to be around for many more years in weightlifting, as an athlete, coach, spectator or any other function and would love to share my knowledge with the next generation and make good publicity for our great sport"

 Website: http://www.tomgoegebuer.be