Piotr Malachowski

Piotr Malachowski was born in uromin on 7 June 1983. 25 yrs later he won silver in the Beijing Olympic Games. He is 192cm tall and weights 122kg. He is coached by Witold Suski. His personal best stands on 69.83 and was set in 2010. Piotr Malachowski is ranked alltime #25.

But let´ s start from the beginning. Piotr has been throwing discus since he was 13yrs old. His talent was discovered by his sports teacher Bernard Jablonski when Piotr unfortunately hit a parked car window.

When Piotr was 15 he  went to a boarding school of sports which is located in Ciechanv. He had a true belief in what his sports teacher had told: “Hard work always pays!”  His first success came in 2003 when he took gold from Polish Junior Championships with 57.69.

As a young man, Malachowski was, for a short period, influenced by the criminal underground in Poland, but fortunately he left that company very quickly and started to practise the Discus as a member of the Śląsk military sport club in Wrocław. He still lives in Warsaw, however.

Piotr had to compare work, sports and music. When the current top Discus throwers were already competing on the field,Malachowski had other extremely different roles, first being a firefighter in Biezhun, a small Mazovian town not far from Warsaw. Besides that, he appeared in concerts as a member of the firefighters orchestra playing the trumpet.  Malachowski is probably not to be compared with the masters, like Louis Armstrong, but, no doubt, he can play well and it remains his main hobby.

Current European champion loves original Polish cuisine and, for that reason, he prefers to share his Warsaw flat with his sister, who is a master of cooking.  Only she can prepare the tasty pork chop called €œschabowy€ for him.  Because of that he dislikes going abroad and having to look for Polish tastes in foreign cuisines, which in most countries are not to be found anyway.

Malachowski performed at international level for the first time in March 2006, at the European Winter Throwing Cup in Tel Aviv.There he won with an impressive 65.01. His win that summer at the European Cup, in Malaga, was an important stage on the road to future victories. Shortly after that he made a good debut in the European Championships in Göteborg, placing sixth (64.57).

At the same year he was crowned with Polish Champion title, soon he broke the Polish record which had remained unbreakable for 21yrs- 66.21 was the new Polish record.

Hopes that he would be highly placed at the 2007 World Championships, in Osaka, were in vain as the conditions were too hot for him. He felt bad and performed poorly, placing 12th with his worst result of the season (60.77).

During his preparations for the 2008 season, Malachowski injured his right shoulder and was unable to train regularly for more than half a year. Under the circumstances, he quit the hardest strength exercises. Ironically, the less he trained, the better he threw the discus, so his friends, in jest, advised him to stop training altogether. Malachowski attended all the training camps, however. Finally, he considered his injury to be forgotten.

During the training sessions he was throwing his two kilo discus up to 68-69 metres. But, in competition, Malachowskis throws still remained three metres shorter until he made the long awaited breakthrough and set a national record of 68.65 during the Janusz Sidło Memorial, in Sopot. It came at a timely moment, just two weeks before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

While competing in Bejing, Piotr had no mental problems anymore. He threw 67.82 and that was enough to win the Olympic silver. After coming back from China the new Olympic hero attracted big media attention for the first time.

In 2009 Poland celebrated the 50th anniversary of Edmund PiÄ…tkowski’s 59.91 Discus World record and Malachowski wanted to win a World title on that special occasion. His dream almost came true in Berlin, but Germanys Robert Harting finally won the competition. Nevertheless, Piotr was very satisfied. His preparations before the championships were seriously disturbed because of a finger injury and he was even advised by Witold Suski to stop competing and to stay home. Despite these problems, Malachowski went to Berlin, where he unexpectedly bettered the National record to 69.15 and grabbed silver.

There were no more injuries the following year, so the World vice-champion performed extremely well from the very beginning. He set a new National record of 69.83 in Gateshead and beat Robert Harting at the European Championships in Barcelona, winning his first international title. Three weeks later he added the IAAF Diamond League general win to his brilliant seasons collection.

In the meantime, Malachowski built a house in Biezhun, got a driving licence and a luxurious BMW car. He belongs to the Polska 2012 Club and receives 300 000 dollars a year from the Ministry of sport to pay all the costs of his pre-Olympic preparations. His physiotherapist is a former discus thrower (former European Junior Champion) Andrzej Krawczyk.

Piotr Malachowski achievements

IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup 2010	4	f	64.20	Split	2010
20th European Athletics Championships	1	f	68.87	Barcelona	2010
IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final	3	f	65.60	Thessaloniki	2009
12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics	2	f	69.15	Berlin	2009
1st SPAR European Team Championships	1	f	66.24	Leiria	2009
6th IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final	2	f	66.07	Stuttgart	2008
The XXIX Olympic Games	2	f	67.82	Beijing	2008
5th IAAF World Athletics Final	3	f	65.35	Stuttgart	2007
11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics	12	f	60.77	Osaka	2007
7th European Cup Winter Throwing	2	c	65.06	Yalta	2007
4th IAAF World Athletics Final	6	f	62.50	Stuttgart	2006
19th European Athletics Championships	6	f	64.57	Gothenburg	2006
27th SPAR European Cup Super League	1	f	66.21	Malaga	2006
6th European Winter Throwing Cup	1	c	65.01	Tel Aviv	2006
European U23 Championships	2	f	63.99	Erfurt	2005
IAAF/Coca Cola World Junior Championships	6	f	60.46	Kingston	2002