March 21, 2016 Sebastian Belin Met up with good friends at a restaurant in St. Brussels. At the time, he couldn’t have known that his group’s insistence on meeting up, as well as the fact that he finally ate three plates of carbonara, would save his life…

Just twelve hours later, Belin was lying on the floor at the airport in the Belgian capital. His ears were filled with noise caused by a powerful explosion that shook the place a few seconds earlier. Through the smoke, he could see the panic that reigned, but also some of the unfortunate travelers…

He tried to move, but it was impossible. He could not move his legs, his clothes were burned in many places, and a pool of blood was already forming under his body, which made him feel increasingly weak.

Two suitcases filled with explosives almost destroyed the entire waiting area at the airport. Sixteen people died, the Belgian basketball player tried his best not to become the 17th dead.

“I remember falling and my hip exploded. I looked and saw a mass of protruding bones. You see dead people, you see body parts, you hear screams, ”he later said, realizing that what happened the day before played a catalytic role in his victory in the battle he fought in those decisive minutes at Brussels airport.

Sebastien Belin was born in Sao Paulo. His mother was a physical therapist and his father was a high-ranking executive, and his career also defined that of his son. The transfers were frequent. From Brazil to Indianapolis and Philadelphia, and from there to Denmark, Italy and Belgium. The only thing that has not changed, no matter where he works, is his passion for sports. First it was football, then tennis, but when he was 13 years old in Brussels, classmates convinced his very tall friend for his age to take up basketball. And they were right, as it paved the way for him to a US college championship as well as a professional career with teams in Europe. For Belin, basketball was, in his words, the greatest school, because it showed him that there is always an alternative, even when it seems that all is lost.

As he struggled to remain unconscious, his life flashed before him like a movie. He remembered what he had been taught mainly by his coach Greg Camp of the University of Oakland, who always told his players to “Seize the Moment” like Robin Williams playing Professor John Keating to his students in Lost Poets Circle. Belin also tried to win that day and for the rest of his life when he was seriously injured at the Brussels airport. He first asked another passenger to put his feet up on the suitcase, then tied a scarf tightly around his leg to try and stop the bleeding. Although the police, who had already cordoned off the area, advised him not to move, he did not listen to them. With the help of a porter, he got to the exit of the airport, on a baggage cart, knowing that there it was very likely that he would “fall” on the first rescuers. And he was acquitted, as the firemen who arrived at the scene found him and took him to a makeshift sorting center. He lost 50% of his blood and almost lost his left leg during surgery. But in the end he seized the day.

Sebastian Belin he spent three months in the hospital. For the first few days, he didn’t know that while he was wounded, Georgian photographer Ketevan Kardava had captured the moment. This photo went… viral as it was published in dozens of newspapers and magazines around the world. Belin became more famous than when he played. He gave enough, while almost 1.5 months after the attack, his daughters came from the US to see him, and the visit was recorded by American channels.

The recovery period was quite painful. It was originally bedridden, his legs held together with metal pins and splints. He had skin grafts to close open wounds. Gradually, he learned to walk again, adapting to new conditions. He had no sensation below the knee in his left leg, as the metatarsal had been removed when the infection began to develop.

When he left the hospital, besides his family, he knew that there was only one thing that would make him forget what he had been through as much as possible, and that was sports again. “I just needed a dream to stay focused and positive. I wanted the opposite extreme of the situation in which I found myself. That’s all take part in one of the toughest endurance races in the world.” So he announced participation in the Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii. There, he had to swim 2.4 miles, bike another 112 miles, and finally run a full marathon. Of course, it takes much more than a 40-minute basketball game.

The outbreak of the Covod-19 pandemic has postponed the race, giving Belin the opportunity to be even better prepared for the big test. He designed special shoes to prevent blisters on his weaker left foot while giving him more time to learn to stand again, now that some of the screws holding his bones together have been removed. In October 2022, 6.5 years after the attack, the former basketball player finished the Hawaiian Ironman in 14 hours 39 minutes and 38 seconds. “It was never about how fast I could finish. The goal was to show myself that my body and mind were capable despite this handicap. It is my duty not to surrender to the people who died that day and to my country as a proud Belgian. I am atrophied, I can no longer move my toes, but I do not allow my disability to be stronger than me. The only thing he went wrong during the race was nutrition, as he was unable to adjust his nutrition strategy. I drank electrolyte faster than I planned. So, during the marathon, he suffered from stomach pains and cramps as his body tried to process carbohydrates and sodium.

Instead, on March 22, 2016, his appetite saved him. Without those three plates of carbonara the night before, his blood sugar would probably be too low to keep him awake. He would have stayed behind the police cordon. He would have lost more blood and possibly everything. He didn’t plan to go out to eat that night. He has just returned to Brussels from a day of business meetings in Paris. He was exhausted. He booked a seat on the first flight to New York the next day. He just wanted to sleep. And then his phone rang, as a friend living in Brussels invited him to an Italian restaurant. Belin refused three times, but a friend’s insistence on calling him a fourth time convinced him to get out of bed and meet him. “I ate my first plate of pasta so quickly that the waiter brought two more. “If he hadn’t called me, I would have gone straight to bed, got up, had a glass of water and maybe a banana, and ran out the door to catch my flight,” he says.

About two months ago, Belin returned to Brussels. This time at the old NATO headquarters, just a few kilometers west of where he was wounded. He was a witness at the trial of 10 men accused of helping to plan the attacks at Brussels airport and on the same day at the Maelbeek metro station, where 16 others were killed. Mohamed Abrini is one of them. He smuggled the bomb into Brussels airport but, unlike his two accomplices, did not detonate it.

Sebastien Belin took the floor and asked the defendant to look him in the face and listen to his words. “Today I decided to forgive you. I leave behind the atrocities you are accused of. I decided to make more room for love in my life,” he said and left.

Belin says that justice “must prevail” and those responsible “should pay the price,” but right now he’s focused on his family and himself. He is proud of his position, as well as the fact that he rebuilt his life from scratch. “I will remain disabled for the rest of my life, but at the same time, a lot of good things have come out in these seven years. I feel like the best friend, the best husband, the best father, the best person. I know that I am stronger … “