Otylia Jędrzejczak

Otylia Jędrzejczak
Personal information
Full name Otylia Jędrzejczak
Nationality  Poland
Born (1983-12-13) 13 December 1983
Ruda Śląska, Śląskie
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle and butterfly
Club AZS-AWF Warszawa
Copy of medal & autograph of O. Jędrzejczak in Stars Avenue in Dziwnów

Otylia Jędrzejczak ( listen ) (born 13 December 1983) is a Polish swimmer. She is the Olympic champion from 2004 Athens in the 200 metre butterfly. She finished 4th in this event in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She also swam in a first Olympiad, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In Athens 2004 she also silvered in 400 m freestyle and 100 m butterfly. Three times she broke the world record in the women's 200 m butterfly (once in the 25-metre pool).

Jędrzejczak was born in Ruda Śląska, Silesian Voivodship, Poland. She started swimming at the age of six as a measure to correct a slight curvature of the spine. At first she hated the sport. Her attitude towards it changed after she had won her first prize in a competition in Germany at the age of eight. Jędrzejczak took up swimming seriously in high school. Led by coach Maria Jakóbik, she won her first titles in the Junior European Championships in 1999. Medals in the Senior European Championships in 1999 and 2000 opened the way to her first Olympic appearance.

Jędrzejczak studied at the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw (Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego w Warszawie). Her coach is Paweł Słomiński. She stands 187 cm (6 ft 1½ in) tall and wears a size 47 (EU)/14 (US) shoe.

For her sport achievements, she received:
Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (5th Class) in 2004.

Career heights

Olympic Games gold medal auction

Jędrzejczak owes her Olympic gold medal success to a brilliant finish in the last quarter of the 200 metre distance, which allowed her to overtake Australian Petria Thomas, who led the race for over 150 metres.

After the race Jędrzejczak revealed, that during the pre-Olympic trials in Athens in June she had declared that if she won a gold medal in the Olympics, she would auction it off and hand the proceeds to a charity helping children suffering from leukemia.

The results of the internet auction were announced on 19 December 2004 with Victoria Cymes, a Polish food company, turning out to be the highest bidder with 257,550 zlotys (about 82,437 USD). The money was handed over to the Oncology and Haematology Clinic of Wrocław's Children's Hospital.

Later career

On 1 October 2005, she was injured in a car accident, which killed her 19-year-old brother, Szymon. She was driving, attempting to pass several long-haul trucks at excessive speed during bad weather conditions and crashed into a tree.

She was tried for an accident resulting in passenger's death. The prosecutors initially proposed Jędrzejczak an agreement which would lead to a sentence of 2 years imprisonment in suspension. Jędrzejczak refused the agreement and strongly pressed for an acquittal, stating that she was already punished enough by her brother's death. Her trial began in February 2007 before the District Court in Płońsk, close to the place of the accident. She was convicted and sentenced to 9 months of probation during which she had to do 30 hours of community service a month. She also lost her driving licence for 1 year. Both the prosecution and Jędrzejczak appealed to the Regional Court in Płock, which upheld the ruling.

The accident, the trial and their aftermath started taking their toll. Her attitude during the trial resulted in alienation of many of her fans and decline of her popularity. In 2006, she returned to competitive swimming and competed in European Championships in Budapest, finishing first in 200 m freestyle and 200 m butterfly as well as second in 4×200 m relay. In 2007, she managed to set new world record in 200 m butterfly in Debrecen, but later, in Melbourne, she finished third in her main competition, 200 m butterfly, and in Eindhoven in 2008, she failed to qualify for the final race in both 100 m and 200 m butterfly.

Although both Jędrzejczak and her trainer Paweł Słomiński stated that Eindhoven results were "just an accident", 2008 Summer Olympics proved otherwise. Jędrzejczak, who won three Olympic medals four years earlier, in Beijing managed only to reach 9th place in 200 m freestyle and a disastrous 17th place in 100 m butterfly. She hoped for a medal in her favourite 200 m butterfly, but she failed, finishing 4th.

After returning from Beijing, Jędrzejczak stated in an interview that she probably would quit the career as a professional swimmer.

However, Jędrzejczak qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 100m and 200m butterfly. She swam a time of 59.31 in her 100m heat, and did not qualify for the semifinals.

World championship results

References

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otylia Jędrzejczak.
    Records
    Preceded by
    Australia Susie O'Neill    		 Women's 200 metre butterfly
    world record holder (long course)
    4 August 2002 – 17 August 2006     		Succeeded by
    Australia Jessicah Schipper
    Preceded by
    China Yang Yu    		 Women's 200 metre butterfly
    world record holder (short course)
    13 December 2007 – 23 February 2008     		Succeeded by
    JapanYuko Nakanishi
    Awards
    Preceded by
    Ukraine Yana Klochkova    		 European Swimmer of the Year
    2005     		Succeeded by
    France Laure Manaudou
    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.