Olivia Borlée


Olivia Borlée is a retired Belgian sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres. Her personal best time in the 200 is 22.98 seconds, achieved in July 2006 in Brussels. She has a personal best of 11.39 seconds in the 100 metres. She won a gold medal in the 4x100 m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics with teammates Hanna Mariën, Élodie Ouédraogo, and Kim Gevaert in a time of 42.54 seconds, which set a new Belgian record.

Sport career

Borlée represented Belgium at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She competed at the 4x100 metres relay together with Gevaert, Mariën and Ouédraogo. In their first round heat, they placed first in front of Great Britain, Brazil, and Nigeria. Their time of 42.92 seconds was the third fastest time overall out of sixteen participating nations. With this result, they qualified for the final in which they sprinted to a time of 42.54 seconds and 2nd place behind Russia but in front of Nigeria to take the silver medal, missing out on the gold medal by 0.23 seconds. However, one of the Russian runners, Yuliya Chermoshanskaya, was later found to have used two banned performance-enhancing drugs, resulting in the Russian team's disqualification, thereby promoting Belgium to the gold medal position. Borlée was awarded the gold medal eight years later on September 10, 2016.
Borlée represented Belgium at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She competed in the 200 metres event. She finished 7th in her heat with a time of 23.53 seconds. She did not qualify for the semifinals. She was the flag bearer for Belgium during the Parade of Nations. She retired after the Rio games.

Fashion career

After retiring from professional sport, Borlée and Olympic teammate Elodie Ouedraogo teamed up again to found the sustainable sportswear brand 4254, named after their Olympic medal-winning time. The brand won the Emerging Talent of the Year at the 2018 Belgian Fashion Awards.

Personal life

Borlée's brothers, twins Jonathan and Kevin, and Dylan, are also athletes. Coached by their father, Jaqcues, the brothers were three of the four runners representing the 4th place Belgium team in the 2016 Olympic 4x400 metres relay final.