RTL.be met Christophe Chasseur, a gym owner in Fosses-la-Ville, near Charleroi. Owner of a weight room, his professional life has come to a standstill and he has no prospects. His gym is deserted, lifeless. Some of its stocks of food supplements have even expired. “I feel helpless”, he says.
One year into the pandemic and the sports hall sector still feels forgotten. The profession is rarely mentioned, and professionals fear a loss of customers. “It’s the same for everyone. The only problem comes afterwards. Will they come back? We will recover from our worst months. So May, June, July and August. If people can go back on vacation, well, they need oxygen. So they are going to leave,” says Christophe.
At present, nearly a thousand fitness clubs are still said to be at a standstill in Belgium. In another gym that RTL.be visited in Marcinelle, the business’ sign is now removed. After several months of crisis, the decision fell: the gym will close its doors. The building is for sale.
“The decision was made to sell the building. I mourned today. It’s sad, but good”, says Lucretia, the owner. “I have found a job with Colruyt here since April. Luckily I work for them full time”.
In the Walloon region, 400,000 practitioners are said to be deprived of reception facilities for the moment. It is almost one in ten. The clubs have little choice: one has to reinvent oneself to survive. At a different gym, in Montignies-sur-Sambre, the sale of clothes is one of the avenues leading out of this crisis. “It allows us to keep our community active and to see people”, explains Alexandre Coniglio, owner of a crossfit gym.
This Montignies-sur-Sambre club goes even further. With around thirty locations, they will sue the state against measures deemed unsuitable. “Compared to the objective which was pursued when the closure was decided in October, this objective has been reached today. Namely that the hospitals are no longer congested, that we have flattened the curve. And so today the closure of these rooms is no longer justified,” said Audrey Lackner, the lawyer who represents the managers.
