Beata Sokołowska-Kulesza (born 10 January 1974 in

Gorzów Wielkopolski Gorzów Wielkopolski (; german: Landsberg an der Warthe) often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów, is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the second largest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 120,087 inhabitants (Decemb ...

) is a Polish

sprint canoer Canoe sprint is a water sport in which athletes race canoes or kayaks on calm water. Overview Race categories vary by the number of athletes in the boat, the length of the course, and whether the boat is a canoe or kayak. Canoe sprints are som ...

who competed from 1999 to 2004. Competing in two

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

, she won two bronze medals in the K-2 500 m event (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

). Sokołowska-Kulesza has also been successful at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, winning ten medals. This includes a gold (K-2 500 m:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

), four silvers (K-2 200 m: 1999,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

; K-2 500 m: 2001, K-4 200 m:

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

), and five bronzes (K-2 200 m:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, K-2 500 m: 2003, K-4 200 m: 1999, K-4 500 m: 1999, 2003). For her sport achievements, she received:
Golden Cross of Merit in 2000;
Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on al ...

(5th Class) in 2004.

References

DatabaseOlympics.com profile
* *

* 1974 births Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Living people Olympic canoeists of Poland Olympic bronze medalists for Poland Polish female canoeists Olympic medalists in canoeing Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland) Sportspeople from Gorzów Wielkopolski ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics 21st-century Polish women {{Poland-Olympic-medalist-stub