Piotr Małachowski (Polish pronunciation: ; born 7 June 1983) is a Polish retired discus thrower, two-time silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics. His personal best throw is 71.84 metres, ranks him fifth in all-time longest discus throw distances, achieved on 8 June 2013 at Hengelo, the Netherlands.
Career Małachowski's throwing distances are seen as even more remarkable as he is not as tall as most discus throwers. Małachowski is one inch shorter than Beijing Olympic champion Gerd Kanter and three inches shorter than world champion Robert Harting and discus great Virgillius Alekna. The typical height of a discus thrower is between . Despite his height disadvantage, Małachowski makes up for it with his incredible ring speed. Malachowski is seen as one of the quickest discus throwers in the ring of all time, closely followed by Róbert Fazekas.
On 19 August 2008, he won an Olympic silver medal in discus throw (67.82 m) placing behind Gerd Kanter (68.82 m). On 23 May 2009, in Halle he threw 68.75 m with a new PB and NR. On 14 July 2009, he was second in IAAF Golden League Berlin, Germany (67.70 m) to be only beaten by Gerd Kanter (67.88 m).
With an injured finger, Małachowski took a silver medal (69.15 m - NR) at 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
In 2010, he took victory in Golden Gala, IAAF Diamond League (68.78 m), beating second-placed Gerd Kanter (67.69 m), and another win in British Grand Prix (69.83 m - NR).
On 13 August 2016, Małachowski won his second Olympic silver (67.55 m), being surprisingly beaten by German Christoph Harting (68.37 m - PB). He announced shortly afterwards that he would sell his Olympic silver medal to raise funds for a 3-year-old boy with a rare form of cancer. The medal was sold at an auction a few days later.
Achievements Representing 2001European Junior Championships Grosseto, Italy5th52.37 m2002World Junior Championships Kingston, Jamaica6th60.46 m (1.75 kg)2003European U23 Championships Bydgoszcz, Poland9th54.79 m2005European U23 Championships Erfurt, Germany 2nd63.99 m2006European Cup Málaga, Spain 1st66.21 mEuropean Championships Gothenburg, Sweden6th64.57 mWorld Athletics Final Stuttgart, Germany6th62.50 m2007European Cup Munich, Germany 1st66.09 mWorld ChampionshipsOsaka, Japan12th60.77 mWorld Athletics Final Stuttgart, Germany 3rd65.35 m2008Olympic Games Beijing, China 2nd67.82 mWorld Athletics FinalStuttgart, Germany 2nd66.07 m2009European Team ChampionshipsLeiria, Portugal 1st66.24 mWorld ChampionshipsBerlin, Germany 2nd69.15 mWorld Athletics Final Thessaloniki, Greece 3rd65.60 m2010European ChampionshipsBarcelona, Spain 1st68.87 m 2011World ChampionshipsDaegu, South Korea9th63.37 m2012Olympic GamesLondon, United Kingdom5th67.19 m2013World Championships Moscow, Russia2nd68.36 m2014European ChampionshipsZürich, Switzerland4th63.54 m2015World ChampionshipsBeijing, China 1st67.40 m2016European ChampionshipsAmsterdam, Netherlands 1st67.06 mOlympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2nd67.55 m2017World ChampionshipsLondon, United Kingdom5th65.24 m2018European ChampionshipsBerlin, Germany –NM2019World ChampionshipsDoha, Qatar17th (q)62.20 m2021Olympic GamesTokyo, Japan15th (q)62.68 m
For his sport achievements, he received: Golden Cross of Merit in 2008. Golden Medal for Merit for Country Defence in 2009. Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (5th Class) in 2009.
See also Polish records in athletics
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