Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk has auctioned off her Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medal to fund urgent heart surgery for an eight-month-old baby.
The 25-year-old finished first in qualifying for the final at the Summer Games but was outthrown by just under two meters by China’s Liu Shiying to earn the silver – her first Olympic medal.
However, in a Facebook post last Wednesday, Andrejczyk explained that she was auctioning off her Olympic medal to raise funds for eight-month-old Mi?oszek Ma?ysa to have life-saving heart surgery.
“I didn’t spend long thinking about this, it was the first fundraiser I came across and I knew it was the right one,” she wrote.
According to Ma?ysa’s mother, Monika, there are no longer any viable options to help the infant in their home country, Poland, with their last hope being an operation in Stanford, California.
Andrejczyk explained that Ma?ysa needed 1.5 million zloty ($383,000) for the urgent surgery. With half the money already raised, she said she wanted to fundraise the other half.
After starting the auction off at 200,000 zloty ($51,000), she announced on Monday via Facebook that ?abka, a Polish supermarket chain, won the auction with a bid of $125,000.
“It’s with the greatest pleasure that I give to you, ?abka, my medal which for me is a symbol of struggle, faith and the pursuit of dreams despite the many challenges,” she wrote.
“I hope for you it will be a symbol of the life of which we fought for together.”
The money raised will allow Ma?ysa to get the necessary surgery at Stanford University Medical Center.
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After winning the auction, ?abka announced that they will be returning the medal to Andrejczyk.
“We were moved by the beautiful and extremely noble gesture of our Olympian,” it wrote on Facebook.
“Therefore, we decided to support the collection of funds for the sick Mi?oszek. We also decided that the silver medal from Tokyo will remain with Mrs. Maria, who showed how great she is.”
Andrejczyk had previous missed out on an Olympic medal at the 2016 Rio Games by just two centimeters.
Aleks Klosok contributed to this report.