Picture Credit: Instagram/@m.andrejczyk
An Olympic medal is undoubtedly one of the most coveted prizes in sports. However, in a recent development, an athlete proved that it is not bigger than someone's life. Poland's female javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk won a silver medal at Tokyo recently and followed it up by winning everyone's hearts few days later.
Having missed out on an Olympic medal at Rio 2016 by the barest of the margins as she finished 4th, Maria redeemed herself by producing a brilliant 64.61m throw in the finals to clinch the prestigious silver medal in the recently-concluded Games. But only a few days later, she put up her medal for auction. Can you even imagine?
Maria Andrejczyk wins hearts after putting her Olympic medal for auction
The Polish athlete had proven herself by her actions on the field in Tokyo. However, she wanted to make a difference in someone's life and decided to use her Olympic medal for the same, which is worth a lot of money. After looking for people in need, Maria stumbled upon a baby named Miloszek Malysa, who is suffering from Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Connection (TAPVC), a major disfunction of pulmonary veins.
The child was in critical condition and needed a heart surgery at the earliest, which cost around INR 2.86 crore. Reflecting on the same, she announced that she was auctioning her silver medal to raise money for the child.
On Facebook, Maria wrote, "Miloszek has a serious heart defect. He needs an operation. 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. And in this way, I also want to help. It’s for him that I am auctioning my Olympic silver medal."
Around 50% of the money for operation raised through auction
During the auction, a Polish convenience store Zabka won the bid and around INR 1.4 crore was raised as a result. The Polish athlete thanked everyone for their support as she put up a post to inform about the same.
She stated in the caption, "The medal I put up last week for Miloszek was auctioned by @zabkapolska ❤️ Together, with Zabka's donation, we have collected over half a million zlotys for Miłosz!"
However, in a heartwarming turn of events, Zabka returned the hard-earned medal back to Maria and donated the entire amount for Miloszek's operation.