Polish javelin thrower auctions Tokyo 2020 silver medal to help eight-month-old get heart surgery

Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk auctioned off her Tokyo 2020 silver medal, to fund urgent heart surgery for an eight-month-old baby.

In a post on Facebook, the athlete wrote, "I didn't think about it for a long time, it was the first fundraiser I went to and I knew it was the right one."

The 25-year-old athlete said that she wanted to raise funds for eight-month-old Miłoszek Małysa to have life-saving heart surgery.

As per a report by CNN, Małysa's mother, Monika, said that there are no longer any viable options to help the infant in their home country, Poland, with their last hope being an operation in Stanford, California.

Maria said that 1.5 million zloty (more than Rs 2.83 crore) was needed and out of that half was already collected but she wanted to help fundraise the other half for urgent surgery.

The auction started at 200,000 zloty (Rs 37,83,278) and it was later announced that Polish supermarket chain Zabka had won the auction.

"It is with the greatest pleasure to give you Zabka this medal, which for me is a symbol of struggle, faith and pursuit of dreams despite many odds," she said on Facebook.

After winning the auction, Żabka announced that they will be returning the medal to Andrejczyk.