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Polish Radio auction to aid injured cycling legend

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 18.12.2018 09:00
Public broadcaster Polish Radio is on Tuesday holding an on-the-air auction to benefit cycling legend Ryszard Szurkowski, who needs rehabilitation after an injury left him paralysed.
Ryszard Szurkowski. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/PolskieRadio.plRyszard Szurkowski. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/PolskieRadio.pl

Szurkowski, 72, underwent multiple spinal surgery and facial reconstruction after he suffered a serious injury in a crash during a veterans’ bike race in Cologne, Germany, in June.

Many Polish sports celebrities, including retired tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska, footballer Robert Lewandowski and ski jumper Kamil Stoch, have donated personal items for the auction.

Szurkowski is one of the biggest names in Polish cycling. His career as a competitive cyclist saw him win Olympic and world championship medals for Poland in the 1970s.

He won an Olympic silver in the team time trial at the Munich Games in 1972 and followed up with another at Montreal in 1976.

He won three golds and a silver during world cycling amateur championships: at Barcelona in 1973, Montreal in 1974, and Mettet, Belgium, in 1975.

Szurkowski is also a four-time winner of the Peace Race, an annual cycling event that was held in the former Eastern Bloc from 1948 to 2006.

Szurkowski won that race in 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1975.

He was coach of Poland’s national cycling team from 1984 to 1988.

(tf/gs)

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