Warsaw: Winning an Olympic medal is probably a life-long dream of any athlete, a result of their hard work and determination. Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk has continued winning hearts online by doing the unthinkable — auctioning her most priced possession for a good cause.
Polish javelin thrower Andrejczyk has auctioned her silver medal to help an eight-month old baby in her nativeland get life-saving heart surgery. Her medal was bought by a convenience store company called ‘Żabka Polska’ for 125,000 USD. However, the company, after winning the bidding war, has asked the javelin star to keep her medal.
As per sources, the child will now undergo surgery at Stanford University. “He already has a head start from Kubus — a boy who didn’t make it in time but whose amazing parents decided to pass on the funds they collected,” Maria posted on social on Tuesday.
“And in this way, I also want to help. It’s for him that I am auctioning my Olympic silver medal. It didn’t take me long to decide, it was the first fundraiser I entered and I knew it was the right one,” she added in her post.
Andrejczyk, herself is also an inspiration for athletes on the field. After missing an Olympic medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics by two centimeters, she suffered from a shoulder injury in 2017 before getting diagnosed with bone cancer a year later.
However, it never dented her spirit as she successfully went through the recovery making a return to the field before winning her first Olympics medal in Tokyo with a throw of 64.61meters.
