Mr. Willy Deneumostier and family

Meet Willy Deneumostier
WAF General Secretary 

Willy Deneumostier was born at 5:35 a.m. September 13, 1955 in Han sur lesse, Belgium, a small Village well know for his beautiful grotto and Natural Park near the town of Rochefort.

 He lived a quiet life coddled by his mother, father, five brothers and three sisters.  In 1965 at the age of 10 years old a tragic accident claimed the life of his mother and gravely injured his two young brother and sister they were on the brink of life and death for over 3 months.

 His father was very busy, with his enterprise of 30 employees and could not find enough time, so the children were reared by their grandmother and different children nurses.  It was not the idea situation for a little boy coming from three generations of Hotel-Keeper-Restorer with a very strict father.

 Willy was told that he must learn the wheels of the family profession.  "It is the rule in this family - You need something you work for it.  You don’t receive anything without working in the enterprise".

 At the age 12 and for the next six years he started to learn how to work in the kitchen, in the bar and in the dinning room. He lived a very good school life but he missed his mother and the affection a normal family life could bring.  He found it in different social activities such as helping the penniless, non-profit associations and activities like the boyhood movement in town, tourist information bureau and town politics for youngsters.

 A good student, he studied accounting at the college to please his father, but what he really wanted was to be involved in sports.  His Father did not agree, he wanted his family to follow the professional tradition and continue the enterprise.  Willy did not agree so at the age of majority, he started studying Physical education at the University of Brussels.

 He found real pleasure in practicing all forms of sports - Soccer, Rugby, Handball, Basketball, Cross-country, Athletics, Judo, Boxing and Power-lifting.  He did very well in all the disciplines, several times classifying in the first three in the Belgium’s championship of athletics discipline.  As a member of the National University Team in Sports discipline, he spent all his days and weeks involved in the top league of Soccer, Rugby, Handball and Basketball.  He finished his studies in 5 years.  During the last year of his studies, during a soccer match he very badly injured his right knee (double slit of crossed ligaments). Immobilized for six months, he decided to follow a journalist's formation at the University.

 During his study years, he worked as a Docker during the holiday in Anvers at the seaport and in a restaurant during the school year.  These five years have stayed unbelievable engraved in his mind as the 5 most beautiful years of his life.  He meet many high level sportsman and sports woman, traveled with different teams and discovered what friendship, happiness and fair play meant in sports.  This is probably why Willy does not stand for unfairness, hypocrisy and bad authority.

 In 1978, he rediscovered a childhood girlfriend who had been in love with him for the past 10 years and he decided to come back home to live with her. In 1979, they decided to get married.

 Working in the family enterprise with his wife, Willy did not feel this was right for him.  Not wanting any more conflict between himself and his father (they both had very strong characters and did not work well together) he decided to take a job with the Belgium National Railway Society as a platelayer.

 He registered for all the test that he could and within six months he passed his exams and became a Level 1 Station Master, he was nominated to work in the big Jemelle Station (250 workers) near Rochefort and he has been there for the past 21 years.

 Having some spare time, he opened a Restaurant (50 places) with his wife Jacqueline because she was bored in Eprave.  For the next 19 years they worked 15-hour days (8 at the railways-7 in the restaurant) all while trying for a family.  Unfortunately, in 1982, during soccer match, Willy had received a ball shouted at point blank in his lower abdomen.  This accident sent him to the hospital with internal hemorrhaging . The surgeons operated on him for 14 hours trying to repair and reduce the damage, Willy closely escaped deaths door.  In 1984 after another 7-hour operation the Surgeons told Jacqueline and Willy that they would probably never have Children.  For this couple, this was a very dirty trick of fate.

 Willy and Jacqueline wanted so much to have a big family together, that they would not give up. They started contacting different specialist hoping that through medical break through they would find a way to have the children they always dreamed of.  In 1992 through their Doctor they heard of a new method developed in Belgium - the Fecundating Method.  After 10 years of trying every method in existence they had new hope once again..  For two years they tried this method without result but progress was being made in this field everyday and they tried once more.

 On November 13^th, 1995 after two miscarriages in 3 years their Hell turned to Paradise. A son was born, he measured 52 centimeters and weighed in at 2.955 kg, then February 21, 1997 his little sister Jane was born and Faith shined once more when on January 13^th, 1999 the twins Alice and Celia blessed the Deneumostier Family. 

 Four babies in 3 years, life was now complete.  He can never thank his wife enough for her courage, her support and her love during all those years of difficulty.  She is the only reason why Willy is always optimistic and truly believes in life.  There is no problem that does not have a solution.  He feels you must always believe in the beauty of live.  Try to do your best and you will be rewarded.  This is why he believes in the power of human beings finding new techniques, progress and reconciliation.   The World grows with the Spirit of Family, Love, Happiness and Friendship, not with hate, personal interest and egotistic behavior.

 After seeing the film Over the Top with Sylvester Stallone in 1991, Willy organized his first tournament in his hometown.  After seeing the Paris Bercy Armwrestling Show he realized that he was not the only person who had fallen in love with this sport and in 1992 along with his friend Jean-Marie Lavaux (still President) he founded the Belgium Armwrestling Association.

 They decide that their only goal would be to promote armwrestling to be recognized as a real sport.   Along with 12 Belgium competitors Willy attended the 1992 World Armwrestling Championships in Geneva Switzerland where he met armwrestlers who were just as passionate as he was with this new found sport of Armwrestling. 

 Willy was Vice-President of the Belgium Armwrestling Association for 3 years and President from 1995 to 2000 when he decided to let the younger generations continue his work and handed over his duties to Kathy Defêche - 5 time top 3 Champion at the World Level.

 In 1992 Willy and Jean-Marie held their first International Belgium Championships with 4 countries present.  It has become one of Europe's most prestigious events with more than 200 competitors from over 15 different countries attending each year.  The top 3 winners of this event have gone on to be World and Continental Champions in their weight class.

 To help work towards EAF unification Willy and his team have agreed to let their friend Petra Spatz, German President hold the 2003 European Championships on the date usually reserved for the Belgium annual event.

 Willy's armwrestling accomplishments have been many - he has taken a 4^th in 1996, 2^nd in 1998 and 1^st in 1999 at the Worlds Master Division in the 100-kg class.  He has taken a 4^th in 1996, 3^rd in 1997, 2^nd in 1998, 1^st in 2000 and 2^nd in 2001 at the European Championships Master Division.  He is also a 7 times Belgium Champion.  He has not been training much since 1999 being busy with his children and official responsibilities for the EAF and World Federations.

He became WAF's Interim General Secretary in 1998 and was elected by a majority 29 Country vote in 2002.  Since 1998 he has been Director of International Relationship for the EAF.  He is the Foundation of both organizations and assures that the Constitution and Rules and Regulations are kept and followed around the World.  Along with his team he has successfully controlled the Registration, Weigh-ins and scorekeeping for the World Championships since 1998.

 If you look for one word that would best describe Willy no one would dispute it to be "Passionate".  Passionate about his work, Passionate about the people he works with but most importantly he is Passionate about the Sport and its Sportsman, wanting only to improve the quality of each event, working hard for reunification and striving for Sports recognition.

 His quality of friendship, justice and organization is very precious to anyone who works with him.  His purpose is to serve the Armwrestlers.  He is sometime inflexible & stubborn but it is always in the best interest of the sport. He is incorruptible and believes that discipline in following the rules is the only way to be recognized by the Official Institutes.

 Huge strides have been made in the last 5 years in the World of Armwrestling, under the guidance and dedication of Willy Deneumostier and Fred Roy. They continue to invest their time and energy because they believe in continuing the Dream of Sport and Olympic recognition.

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