It’s not only soldiers who die on duty. Sportspeople do as well. And every year brings new tragedies – the latest being the untimely death of Polish hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska.
On 18 February, during a training camp in Portugal, the 26-year-old suddenly fainted, never to wake up again. The cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.
In Poland we have so few Olympics medallists in our sporting history, so to lose one whose achievements were surely still not complete is a shock. But it was also a terrible loss for her sport.
As the first ever Junior European Champion and Olympic champion for Poland, she set a high standard for her field, the latter win in Sydney even seeing her decorated with the Polish Golden Cross of Merit. Aged under 18 on both occasions, she was never to be that successful again, but still hugely contributed with her fifth place in Athens in 2004 and 12th place in Beijing last year.
Competing regularly at the highest levels, Skolimowska medalled twice at the European Championships: silver in 2002 and bronze in 2006. And with a national record of 71.71m, she won the IAAF Grand Prix Final in 2001. That would be beaten soon after, but it is still a European Junior record in hammer throwing.
Although the World Champ-ionships did not bring her any medals, she still placed a respectable fourth in 2001 and 2007. She was also Polish champion an amazing 12 times, winning her last title in 2008.
Other achievements include gold in the Francophone Olympics and Good Will Olympics in 2001, as well as first place in the Super League European Cup and the Universiade, and second in the IAAF Grand Prix Final in 2005.
The following year she won the Winter European Cup and World Cup and left both the Super League and IAAF Grand Prix Final with silver. In her competing career, only three times did she place behind the top ten, and was ninth place in the world rankings before her death.
Born in Warsaw into a family with a sporting background – her father was an Olympic weightlifter who competed in the 1980 games – Skolimowska actually started as a weightlifter until she was encouraged to switch to hammer throwing. Aside from her athletic accomplishments, she worked at the police station in Piaseczno and had a higher degree in marketing.
On 20 February, Poland’s President Lech KaczyÅ„ski posthumously awarded Kamila Skolimowska with the Bachelor Cross of Poland’s Revival Order, the highest award in the state, in recognition of her great contribution to the nation.
