In a selfless and humane gesture of genuine love and kindness, the tall (5 feet, 9 inch) and statuesque athlete auctioned her silver medal to fund heart surgery in the US, for an 8-month-old boy with a life-threatening condition
Polish athlete and javelin thrower, silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics (women’s javelin -64.61m), Maria Magdalena Andrejczyk, is perhaps a shining example of selfless love, sacrifice and spontaneous, heartwarming generosity.
Her magnanimity has won her global bouquets and golden glory in exchange for silver that had come after years of sweat and toil. What followed afterwards is equally touching – a dramatic anticlimax, no less.
Her silver medal fetched her $125,000 in a Facebook auction. Polish chain store Zabka won the bid. And the child’s parents were handed over the money
In a selfless and humane gesture of genuine love and kindness, the tall (5 feet, 9 inch) and statuesque athlete auctioned her silver medal to fund heart surgery in the US for an 8-month-old boy with a life-threatening condition. Obviously, the child’s parents were poor and in no position to bear the high cost of surgery.
Her silver medal fetched Maria $125,000 in a Facebook auction. Polish chain store Zabka won the bid. And the child’s parents were handed over the money.
What happened next is the finest lesson in humanity; nothing short of a beautiful, modern-day fairy tale. In a dramatic turnaround and anticlimax, the chain store returned Maria’s silver medal. Genuine love often fosters love in far greater measure.
In the final outcome of this entire episode, Maria has become Poland’s Darling and a Golden Girl for the world.
A summary of Poland’s Olympic journey (1924 Paris to Tokyo 2020):
*Poland’s Olympic participation began with the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Here they won the country’s first Olympic medal, a silver in the cycling team event (Franciszek Syzmczyk, Jan Lazarski, Jozef Lange and Tomas Stankiewicz).
*The first Olympic Gold came at the next Summer Olympic Games in 1928 at Amsterdam. It was won by Halina Konopacka (discus).
*Two other individual medals – silver and bronze – were won by Equestrian Michael Antoniewicz in Amsterdam the same year (1928).
*Poland won the largest number of medals at the 1980 Summer Olympic, Moscow, with 32 medals.
*Since then, the county has participated in every Summer Olympics, except the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
* Thirteen Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the games at Los Angeles that year together with the then Soviet Union, to protest against the US boycott of the Moscow Games, 1980.
*The US protest had come in the wake of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979.
*In its Olympic journey to date, Polish athletes have won 320 medals – 9 gold, 96 silver and 145 bronze.
*The most successful Polish athlete at the Olympics has been Sprinter Irena Szewinska, with seven medals. She is the only athlete, male or female in history to have held world records in 100m, 200m and 400m.
*The athlete with the most number of gold medals for Poland is Robert Korzeniowski (racewalker), with four golds.