Poland's javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk auctioned her Tokyo Olympics silver medal for $125,000. She did so to raise funds for the heart surgery of an infant in Poland. "It didn't take me long to decide, it was the first fundraiser I entered and I knew it was the right one," Maria said on Facebook.
She appealed for a fundraiser through her Facebook. "Miloszek has a serious heart defect, surgery is needed. He also has support in advance from Winnie-a boy who didn't make it in time, but great people decided to donate his funds to Miloszek. And that's how I also want to help. He's the one I'm auctioning off my silver medal of the Olympic Games," she wrote on Facebook on August 11.
Later, it was learned that Zabka, a supermarket chain raised the money for the infant so that his treatment would continue at Stanford University Medical Center in the USA.
"On Friday I received this wonderful information, and due to the fact that you dears have already done wonders and joint forces have paid more than the equivalent of the initial medal to the Miloszek account - I decided to end the auction so that our Mi łoosz will receive the whole amount as soon as possible and can fly to the USA. The winner, and at the same time, the company I will be eternally grateful to is the company Żabka," she announced on Facebook on August 16.
She won the silver medal in Tokyo 2020 on 6 August. She missed out on a medal in 2016 Rio Olympics, but came back stronger in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics even after going through a cancer treatment in 2018.