Emiel Vanderleenden

Emiel Vanderleenden was born in Gent. The winner of a 1919 regional (Flanders) title, and the 1920 national championship title in middleweight Greco-Roman wrestling, he was selected as one of his country’s national representatives at the Olympic Games held on home soil in 1920 at Antwerpen. In the middleweight Greco-Roman tournament, he won his first two matches against opponents from the USA and Sweden, but lost in the second place semifinal to Matti Perttilä of Finland.

Shortly after the Olympics, he immigrated to the United States, settling permanently in New York, where he later worked for the Bethlehem Steel Company. He also spent some time living in Detroit, Michigan in the late 1920s where he continued to be active in wrestling. Vanderleenden remained in the United States until his death in 1971 at the age of 77.