Maria Magdalena Andrejczyk- ''Auctioned her Olympic Medal''

About Maria

Maria Magdalena Andrejczyk was born on March 9, 1996. She is a silver medalist in the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2015 European Junior Champion. Her personal best of 71.40 metres, established in 2021, is the Polish record and the third-highest performance in the women's javelin throw competition's history.

Andrejczyk competed in the 2015 World Championships in Beijing but did not make it to the final. During the 2015 European Junior Championships, she won gold. Andrejczyk competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for Poland. While competing in the qualifying round on August 16, 2016, she set a new Polish national record with an absolute record of 67.11 metres. In the end, she came in fourth place in the final. She had immediate surgery on her damaged shoulder soon after the Olympics and so she missed the entire 2017 session of competition. In June 2018, she reappeared to competition, however her form was not good enough to qualify for the 2018 European Championships in Berlin. She finished second at the 2019 European Team Championships Super League in Bydgoszcz and qualified for the 2019 World Championships in Doha, but was eliminated in the qualifying round. Maria Andrejczyk, after winning it at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to help save a newborn in her home country who needs heart surgery. She expressed her desire to gather donations for Mioszek Maysa on Facebook. An 8-month-old boy from Poland must fly to Stanford University in California for life-saving cardiac surgery.

Olympics Medal Auction

Maria revealed on Monday, a week after her post, that she had surpassed her fundraising target. The medal, which was her first Olympic medal, was sold for $125,000 by the 25-year-old. The auction was won by Zabka, a Polish grocery business, who later returned the medal to Andrejczyk. "We also agreed that Ms. Maria will keep her silver medal from Tokyo," Zabka stated. Andrejczyk has overcome cancer. She had osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that starts in the cells that form bones, according to a 2018 sinus X-ray. The infant had a significant heart condition that needs immediate surgery. Because of the delicate nature of the operation, hospitals in various European countries have declined to operate on the infant.

The procedure, on the other hand, will be extremely expensive. Miloszek's parents have started an internet fundraising campaign for his surgery, which will cost 1.5 million ($385,000). Parents updated their posts as time passed and the fundraising only raised half of its goal. As the clock ticked down, Miloszek's parents updated their status: "Miloszek's condition is rapidly deteriorating, and he requires immediate surgery!”.That's when Maria stepped in to help. “Miloszek has a significant heart condition that necessitates immediate surgery. He already has a leg up on Kubus, a boy who didn't actually make it in time but whose generous parents decided to donate the money they raised. Ms. Maria did a lovely and honourable gesture, which moved us greatly. We also determined that she would keep her silver medal from Tokyo. We're delighted we were able to help,” Zabka wrote on Facebook. Maria had been two centimetres short of a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2018, and her aim of capturing a medal at the Tokyo Olympics seemed bleak at the moment. She didn't need chemotherapy, but she did need surgery, which she had and recovered from gradually. She finished second behind China's Shiying Liu with a throw of 64.61 metres in the Tokyo Olympics (66.34m). Maria opted to auction her medal to save a life, despite the fact that her accomplishment in Tokyo was near and dear to her heart.

Maria states, "The true value of a medal always remains in the heart".