Max Houben (5 May 1898 – 10 February 1949) was a Belgian versatile athlete who competed from the early 1920s until his death at the 1949 FIBT World Championships.

After the war, he earned two medals at the 1947 FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz with a silver in the four-man and a bronze in the two-man event.

[3] Houben died during a practice run at the 1949 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New York, when his two-man sledge catapulted off of "shady" corner at the bobsleigh track.

Houben was killed instantly, while his partner Jacques Mouvet survived with a broken skull and a serious back injury.

[1] Following the accident the community of Lake Placid donated a trophy to the FIBT to be presented to the two-man bobsleigh world champions and named it in honour of Houben.