Carla Galle was one of the leading swimmers in Belgium in the late 1960s. She specialized in the medley and freestyle and also competed in the 1968 Olympics.
After her active career, she jumped into another bath. She also became interested in politics through her relative Marc Galle, who was one of the important figures in the socialist party for many years.
Galle became party secretary of the SP and in that period also got to know her later partner Karel Van Miert.
From 1991 Galle combined her position within the party with that of chairman of Bloso, which is now called Sport Vlaanderen. For 23 years she set out the lines of the Flemish top sport policy.
“Has someone administratively meant more for Olympic top sport in this country or region?”, sports journalist Hans Vandeweghe wonders rhetorically on Twitter.
At the end of her career, Galle also became involved in the famous Augusta scandal through her partner Van Miert. In 2002 she was convicted of forgery, but a year later she was acquitted on appeal.
Galle was a very outspoken figure, who for many years weighed in on (sports) policy in our country. In recent years she had completely withdrawn. She had also been ill for a while and eventually turned 73.