An athlete give-up her silver medal for an infant
A Polish javelin thrower auctioned off her silver medal just days after the Tokyo Olympics to help pay for an infant’s heart surgery. Last Monday, Maria Magdalena Andrejczyk stated on Facebook that she will sell her medal and donate the funds to an operation for Miloszek Malysa, an 8-month-old boy. The kid is receiving home hospice care and requires an urgent operation in the United States, according to a crowdfunding page.
Andrejczyk has overcome cancer. She had osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that starts in the cells that make bones, according to a 2018 sinus X-ray.
With a throw of 64.61 metres, Maria Andrejczyk grabbed silver, while Kelsey-Lee Barber of Australia took bronze with 64.56 metres, her best performance of the season. She finished second to China’s Liu Shiying, who won the gold medal with a throw of 66.34 metres. Andrejczyk, who finished fourth at the 2016 Olympics and was the favourite after setting a world record of 71.40 metres in May, failed to replicate that performance.
Andrejczyk wrote on Facebook after the auction ended that the medal was a “symbol of struggle, faith, and the pursuit of ambitions despite numerous hurdles” to her.
“I hope it will be a sign of the life we worked for together for you,” she wrote.
The auction was won by Zabka, a Polish grocery group, who later returned the medal to Andrejczyk. “We also agreed that Ms. Maria will keep her silver medal from Tokyo,” Zabka stated.
