Jacques Borlée was born in Stanleyville, in the Belgian Congo, in 1957, three years before the independence of the country.

[1] Jacques Borlée married Edith de Maertelaere, a former Belgian champion over 200m runner.

His daughter Olivia won a gold medal as part of the 4 × 100 m relay team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing,[2] in a new Belgian record time.

The Belgian 4 × 400 m relay team, including his two sons Kevin and Jonathan, ended fourth at the same games,[3] also setting a new national record in that race.

[12] At the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, the women's 4 × 100 m relay team, with his daughter Olivia, won the bronze medal.

[2] 4 Years later, at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, Kevin won the bronze medal in the 400m individual, with Jonathan ending in fifth place.

Olivia Borlée was the promising new athlete of 2003, and finished in third place in the female Gouden Spike in 2008 and 2009.

[2][4] The progenitor of the Borlee family is Jacques, bronze medalist at the 1983 European Indoor Championships in Budapest on 200 m, while his first wife Edith Demaertelaere was a good sprinter with a personal best of 23.89.

The four sons are all 400 m specialists, the twins Jonathan and Kevin, both Olympic finalists in London 2012, Dylan and the youngest Rayane.