Daniel Outelet

Affected by depression, he committed suicide by hanging in 1970 at the age of 34 after a struggle with what is believed to have been personal problems of a financial nature.

No European championships were held in 1956, but the next year, in 1957, he won his third title during the Rotterdam European Championships defeating the German Walter Reiter in the 3rd dan category, while also winning a bronze medal in the team championships. He won further bronze medals in the 1958 (Barcelona) and 1959 (Vienna) European championships. In 1960 he won his last European title in Amsterdam defeating the local champion, Dutchman Tony Wagenaar in the 4th dan category, while winning another bronze medal in the team championships. In 1961 he won his last bronze medal (bronze) during the European championships held that year in Milan.

Daniël Outelet (together with the late Marcel Clause) is considered as Abe Ichirō's best and most successful judo student. In 1954, in Brussels, he became the first Belgian to win a European judo title in the 1st dan category, after having defeated the Frenchman Briskine. He repeated his success one year later in the 2nd dan category during the 1955 European Championships held in Paris by defeating Douglas Young from Great-Britain.

Daniël Outelet (11 March 1936 – 1970 ??) was Belgium's first great international judo champion. He is the only male Belgian judoka to have won 4 individual European judo titles (1954, 1955, 1957, 1960). With 9 European medals, over an 8-year period, the only other Belgian male judoka to have achieved even more European medals, was Robert Van De Walle a quarter century later. Outelet's premature death at age 34 deprived Belgium of one of a promising teacher and of one of the country's best judo technicians ever.