Olympic silver medalist Piotr Malachowski has just come home after his successful stint in the discus event at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But already the athlete has shown he not only has an Olympic silver medal to be proud of — he also has a heart of gold.
Malachowski has auctioned his medal from the Rio Olympics to help fund the treatment of 3-year-old boy Olek Szymanski, who is suffering from retinoblastoma.
The first thing Malachowski did after returning to Poland was to sell his hard earned symbol of triumph. The Olympic silver medalist doesn't seem content with his athletic accomplishment, so he stepped up his heroic efforts a little further.
The 33-year-old athlete, who has proven to the world that he is not just a winner but a true hero, said that the medal is now worth more than it did a week ago when he received it. The discus thrower also believes the boy's health is as precious as, if not more precious than, any Olympic medal.
Malachowski planned to raise $84,000 to pay for Szymanski's cancer surgery, which is two-thirds of the total cost. The Polish foundation Siepomaga also contributed to the fundraising efforts.
The athlete, however, announced on Facebook that the eBay auction would be discontinued. At the time, bids had already reached $19,000, but the Olympic hero revealed Dominika and Sebastian Kulczyk, the Polish billionaire siblings, had decided to buy the medal with enough money to cover the treatment cost.
"Dominika and Sebastian Kulczyk just declared their willingness to buy my silver medal for the amount, which enables you to complete the treatment, [which is] what I wanted the most," posted Malachowski on Facebook. "Thus, we end the bidding and the medal will go into the hands of Dominika and Sebastian Kulczyk."
Kulczyk, the brother and sister worth $3.4 billion, inherited the assets from their late father Jan Kulczyk.
Though Malachowski had to give away the Rio Olympic medal to the Kulczyk siblings to help the child, he has another Olympic medal in his pocket as a mark of his athletic prowess. The athlete is the proud winner of another silver medal from the discus event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"We were able to show that together we can do wonders," Malachowski noted. "My silver medal today is worth a lot more than [it did] a week ago. It is worth the life and health of a small Olek. It is our great shared success."
Malachowski is not the only Polish Olympian to have sold his medal for a noble cause.
Otylia Jedrzejczak, who won the gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly swimming event at the 2004 Athens Olympics, also sold her medal to help children suffering from leukemia.
