Javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk, who won silver at Tokyo Olympics 2020, auctioned off her silver medal to fund a Polish boy’s heart surgery who was eight months old. The Polish store chain Żabka Polska won the auction with an offer of $125,000.
Maria hopes to help raise funds for the baby’s heart surgery
“It didn’t take me long to decide, it was the first fundraiser I entered and I knew it was the right one,” she said through social media, according to Daily Mail. Miloszek has a serious heart defect and needs surgery.”
However, Żabka Polska, a convenience store chain, wasn’t done there. After the store defeated the bid for the silver medal, it insisted that Andrejczyk keep it.
Her win in Tokyo Olympics 2020
The 25-year-old Maria Andrejczyk, won silver in the women’s javelin throw for her 64.61-meter throw whereas China’s Liu Shiying defeated her at 66.34 meters.
“The true value of a medal always remains in the heart,” Andrejczyk said.
“A medal is only an object, but it can be of great value to others. This silver can save lives, instead of collecting dust in a closet. That is why I decided to auction it to help sick children.” she adds.
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Fundraising for the boy
At Stanford University, a little boy, named Miloszek, will be undergoing heart surgery.
However, Miloszek’s family initiated a fundraising page to pay for the surgery with an intention of 1.5 million Polish zlotych ($384,512) and received 90% of their final goal and thanks to the donation.
For Andrejczyk, the silver medal was the first Olympic medal. In 2018, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer but took off to finish second at the 2019 European Team Championships Super League and qualified for the 2019 World Championships before being eliminated in the qualifying round.
The silver medalists missed out on a medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016 by just 2 centimeters.
However, she suffered from a shoulder injury in 2017.
