Wojtek Czyz

Wojtek Czyz

Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1980-07-30) 30 July 1980 Wodzisław Śląski, Poland
Medal record Men's Paralympic athletics Representing Germany Paralympic Games 2004 Athens Long Jump F42/F44 2004 Athens 100m T42 2004 Athens 200m T42 2008 Beijing Long Jump F42/F44 2012 London Long Jump F42/44 2012 London 100m T42 2012 London Men's 4x100m Relay - T42/T46 IPC Athletics World Championships 2006 Assen Long Jump F42 2006 Assen 100m T42 2006 Assen 200m T42 2011 Christchurch Long Jump F42 IWAS World Games 2009 Long Jump F42 2009 100m T42 2011 Long Jump F42 2011 100m T42 2011 200m T42

Wojtek Czyz (born 30 July 1980) is a German Paralympic track and field athlete from Polish part of Silesia.

In 2001, he was an aspiring professional soccer player, and had just signed terms with SC Fortuna Köln. He ran for a loose ball, when the opposing goalkeeper rammed his knee, causing multiple fractures and compartment syndrome. According to Czyz, the injury was gravely underestimated due to professional failure. Due to delays in treatment, his leg had to be amputated. However, Czyz rebounded and established himself as one of the most successful German athletes in the T/F42 class for above-knee amputees.

Athletics success

Eleven months after his amputation, at the German Championships in 2002, Czyz broke the National record for F42 long jump and won the T42 100m event.

He won triple Gold Medals at the 2004 Paralympics. He won the 100 m and the 200 m dash the long jump for leg amputees, setting World Records in the latter two. In the European Championship of 2005, he repeated his triple crown, winning each discipline again. At the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships he again won triple gold medals.

As of January 2013, Czyz is world record holder in the Men's F42 Long Jump event. He has broken his own world mark several times. He beat his 2008 Paralympics record twice at the 2009 IWAS World Games, but wind assistance invalidated both jumps.

Personal life

As of September 2012, Czyz was a sport student in Cologne. His personal motto is "don't think of what you were, but of what you are and of what you aspire to be" ("denk nicht an das was du warst, sondern an das, was du bist und zu sein dich sehnst"). After his Sports career Wojtek Czyz sailed around the world together with his Wife Elena Brambilla to help amputees to get prosthetics for free and teach them how to walk. These two former professional Athletes funded sailing4handicaps. After the project Wojtek Czyz and Elena Brambilla set up a Manuka Honey company called [1] in New Zealand where they dedicate their passion for the nature.

See also

• The Mechanics of Running Blades

External links

• Official website (in German and English)
• Wojtek Czyz at the International Paralympic Committee
• Wojtek Czyz at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)