Growing up in Brussels, Belgium, Harold Castiaux, SEAS ’24, began his childhood like many other kids, playing a variety of different sports—everything from basketball to tennis to squash. Although he began all of them informally, squash became Castiaux’s primary focus at the age of eight, and he competed on the international stage only four years later.
“I think my first international tournament was like when I was 12 years old or something, 11 years old. That’s when I really started playing more as well,” Castiaux said.
The Belgium native credits his coach and squash academy back home with improving his skills and commitment to the sport at a young age.
“My coach was a 19-year-old girl who actually just made me love the sport so much,” he said. “I actually just enjoyed it way more than basketball and tennis.”
Despite the limited popularity of squash in his home country, his coach founded an academy where Castiaux found many of his closest friends and improved his English.
“I started doing more and more squash and she actually built a really great academy back home. We had so many kids coming in and joining,” Castiaux said. “The academy was very international … So that’s how I was speaking English and stuff with all these people, so it definitely helped me with that because I went to school in French until I was 18 years old.”
Competing in his first squash match at the age of eight, Castiaux began increasing his practices to three times a week until the age of 15. By the age of 19, he was the two-time Belgium national champion for his age group, and had a top ranking of ninth in the European under 17 rankings.
“As I grew, I started playing more and more—like three times a week, probably, at some point and until when I was 15 years old, 14 years old.” Castiaux said, “Then I started to really play every day and try to be the best player.”
He did not think about traveling abroad for college until he was well into his high school years. Castiaux considered coming to the United States after his friend, who played squash alongside him, explained that he was headed there.
“One of my best friends I grew up with went to Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania,” he said. “ He was an amazing player as well, like number one in Europe and everything in two years and he went to the U.S. His first language was English, so it made sense for him to not go to [university in] Belgium, but he sort of inspired me to do this.”
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