She surrendered one of the greatest achievements of her life to help save a baby she had never met.
In 2021, Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk, a cancer survivor and Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, auctioned her medal to raise funds for life-saving heart surgery for eight-month-old Miłoszek Małysa.
The medal sold for approximately $125,000, covering the remaining cost of the child’s treatment in the United States.
Then came an extraordinary turn of events.
The winning bidder, the Polish supermarket chain Żabka, paid the full amount and immediately returned the medal to Maria, stating that she deserved to keep the symbol of everything she had achieved.
Maria later explained her willingness to part with it: “A medal is only an object, but it can save lives instead of collecting dust in a closet.”
In that moment she transformed a personal symbol of victory into something far more meaningful, a second chance at life for a young child.
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