Willy Kreitz

Belgian sculptor Willy Kreitz was entered in three Olympic Winter Games as an ice hockey player (1924 as a substitute, 1928, and 1936), reaching the quarter-finals with Belgium in 1928 as his best result. He took part in three matches in both 1928 and 1936, while playing in Belgium for CPA Antwerpen.

Kreitz also participated as a sculptor in the 1936 Art Competitions of the Berlin Olympics. He studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerpen and received the Van Leriusprijs for sculpture. In 1932 he was awarded the Prix de Roma and toured Italy and Spain. Kreitz was a traditional figurative sculptor and produced sculptures and statues for public spaces as well as portrait busts, nudes and figures of predators. He was also a teacher at the Antwerpen Academy from 1936, and from 1964-68 at the Institute. The Ice hockey goalkeeper is shown on the winner’s medal of the European Ice Hockey Championship in 1930 and 1933 with a diameter of 55 mm and designed by Kreitz. The medal Fencer, however, has only a diameter of 35mm.