Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe (Brussels), Belgium, the son of Eliana and Eugène Van Vaerenbergh, who was an accountant and owned a flower shop. He began martial arts at the age of ten, enrolled by his father in a shotokan karate school. He eventually earned his black belt in karate, later winning the European Professional Karate Association's middleweight championship. He also started lifting weights to improve his physique, which eventually led to a Mr. Belgium bodybuilding title.At the age of 16 he took up ballet, which he studied for five years.
Van Damme's karate teacher and coach was Master Claude Goetz. Jean-Claude studied in Goetz's dojo in Brussels, Belgium. Under Goetz's guidance, Van Damme developed an impressive array of kicks and strikes. Van Damme has also studied Taekwondo and Muay Thai, along with Shotokan Karate.
In 1976, at the age of 16, Jean-Claude made his semi-contact debut under his birth name, Jean Claude Van Vaerenbergh. Fighting at an event sanctioned by the European Karate Union (EKU) in Brussels, Jean-Claude overcame a shakey start to stop fellow-countryman, Toon van Oostrum in 46 seconds. Knockouts were prohibited under the rules, however, van Oostrum quit and the result was listed as "stoppage 0:46". Master Goetz realized his young pupil needed more schooling before he was ready to compete again.
In 1978, after two serious years of training, 18 year old Jean-Claude entered his first EKU tournament in Antwerp, Belgium (under "full-Contact" rules) in the Beginner's Division. Now equipped with more confidence and skill, Jean-Claude had little trouble in winning the tournament. He scored three victories; an 18 second knockout over German-born prospect Eric "Basel" Strauss, a 39 second stoppage over Michel Juvillier (Juvillier quit), and a 12 second stoppage of Orlando Lang.
Two months later at a tournament in Izegem, Belgium, sanctioned by the World-All Styles Karate Organization (WAKO), Van Damme won his first "Semi-Contact" championship in the Beginners Category.
Van Damme won all matches he participated except in one match where he lost a 2-round decision to fellow countryman, Patrick Teugels. Hence, before his retirement from the active competitions he requested a rematch with Patrick Teugels, the only man to defeat him. Teugels was now rated 2nd in the world in the middleweight division by the WAKO. The rematch in Brussels was scheduled for 5-two minute rounds. At the bell, Van Damme came out punching and kicking. His overwhelming aggression was too much for Teugels and the match was halted in under the 2-minute mark (A video of this fight now appears on aol.videos). Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from active competition with a 18-1 (18 knockouts) record and entered Hollywood.
source: wikipedia.com
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