Jan Saenen was, alongside his brothers Frans (light heavyweight national champion) and Edmond, a member of one of the prominent wrestling families of Antwerpen during the 1920s and 1930s. The winner of a Greco-Roman style national title in 1927, Jan Saenen was selected to compete at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games, one of five members of the Verenigde Krachtmeters (VK) club. Competing in the Greco-Roman style in the middleweight class, he won his first four matches by defeating fellow wrestlers from France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Hungary and Turkey before losing a decision to the eventual bronze medallist, Estonian Albert Kusnets in round five. Saenen remained active in the Antwerpen amateur wrestling several years after his Olympic appearance, and operated a wrestling club, Saenen’s Worstelclub, alongside his brothers. He died in 1987 at the age of 82.
Belgium