In an August 19 post on Facebook, the 33-year-old world champion and two-time Olympic medalist wrote that he had received a letter from the mother of a three-year-old boy who has been battling a rare form of eye cancer for two years now.
"Winning an Olympic medal is one of an athlete's life dreams. Of course, the most precious is gold. I did everything in my power to get it. Unfortunately this time I did not succeed. Shortly after the competition the mother of little Olek wrote me asking for help to save her son. I decided to help and auctioned off my medal. The money will go to treat the boy,” Piotr Malachowski wrote.
The medal fetched $84,000 in an online auction paid for by members of one of Poland’s wealthiest families, with the rest of the $126,000 cost of a surgery to save the boy’s life raised by the Polish foundation Siepomaga.
In Rio, Malachowski threw to 67.55m to win silver, finishing 82cm adrift of Germany’s Christoph Harting who took gold. The bronze medal went to Piotr’s compatriot Daniel Jasinski with 67.05m.
