Serge Reding

Prior to the 1970 World Championships Reding was kidnapped by students who wanted to add some muscle to their demands for more meaningful degrees. They held the 280-pound weight-lifter hostage for 24 hours in a medieval castle. Weight-lifting officials were worried that he would be starved, but Reding shouted down from the archers' walkway of the castle tower that he was well fed. "The right of students to question the existing institutions is a proper social phenomenon of this year."

Reding was born in Auderghem to Adeline Gérard, an unmarried woman, and his father is unknown. When his mother married Ernest Reding from Herbeumont in 1953, Serge was adopted by Reding and took his family name. Reding grew attached to his stepfather and stayed with him after he divorced from his mother. He died of a heart attack in Manila, Philippines, a year after competing in the world championships there.

Serge Yvan Arthur Reding (23 December 1941 – 28 June 1975) was a Belgian heavyweight weightlifter. He competed in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a silver medal in 1968. Between 1968 and 1974 he won four silver medals at the world championships and set six ratified world records: three in press, one in snatch and two in clean and jerk.