Bronisław Malinowski (; 4 June 1951 – 27 September 1981) was a Polish track and field athlete, who is best known for winning a gold medal in the 3000 m

steeplechase Steeplechase may refer to: * Steeplechase (horse racing), a type of horse race in which participants are required to jump over obstacles * Steeplechase (athletics), an event in athletics that derives its name from the steeplechase in horse racing ...

race during the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

held in Moscow, Soviet Union and the silver four years earlier in Montreal. One year after his last Olympic appearance, Malinowski was killed in a car accident in Grudziądz, at the age of 30.

Life and career

Malinowski was born in

Nowe Nowe (german: Neuenburg in Westpreußen, 1942-1945: ''Neuenburg (Weichsel)'') is a town in Świecie County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 6,270 inhabitants (2004). Geographical location Nowe is located approximately 75 kilome ...

to a Polish father Anastazy Malinowski, and a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

mother, Irene Malinowska (née Dowell). He was named after the famous anthropologist. Throughout most of his career he competed for Olimpia Grudziądz. His first international medal was the 2000 metres steeplechase gold at the 1970 European Junior Championships. In his first major senior competition, the 1971 European Championships, he broke the national 5000 metres record which was enough for the eighth place. He finished fourth at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in Munich, Germany, but came back to win gold at the 1974 European Championships. The period between the European Championships and the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

, saw a rivalry emerge between Malinowski and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

athlete

Anders Gärderud Sven Anders Gärderud (born 28 August 1946) is a Swedish former track and field athlete, winner of the 3000 m steeplechase event at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Gärderud was born to an orienteering competitor, and was an accomplished ...

. It ended with Malinowski taking silver behind the first-place Gärderud who won in a world-record time. BronekMalinowski

Although Gärderud retired from the sport in 1976, Malinowski faced a new contender, Henry Rono of Kenya, who set the new world record in 1978. Still, Malinowski beat Rono in a head-to-head race that same season. In the autumn of 1978, he successfully defended his European Championship in the 3000 metres steeplechase in Prague. The pinnacle of Malinowski's career came during the 1980 Summer Olympics when he took gold in the 3000 m steeplechase race by steadying himself against front-runner Filbert Bayi. Shortly before his death, Malinowski was considering moving to Scotland, the native country of his mother, because Poland was then politically restless. He died in a car crash on 27 September 1981 on a bridge in Grudziądz, which was later named after him. There is also an annual running competition held in his honour in that city, the International Bronisław Malinowski Run.Official site of International Bronisław Malinowski Run
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Competition record

Personal bests

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

– 3:37.42 ( Warsaw 1978) *

Mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

– 3:55.40 (

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

1976) *

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

– 7:42.4h ( Oslo 1974) ** 3000 metres indoor – 7:55.73 ( Rotterdam 1973) *

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

– 13:17.69 (

1976) *

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

– 28:25.19 ( Augsburg 1974) *

3000 m steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 metres, which derives its name from the h ...

– 8:09.11 ( Montreal 1976)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malinowski, Bronislaw 1951 births 1981 deaths People from Świecie County Polish male middle-distance runners Polish male steeplechase runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Poland Olympic gold medalists for Poland Olympic silver medalists for Poland Road incident deaths in Poland European Athletics Championships medalists Athletes from Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Polish people of Scottish descent Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field) FISU World University Games gold medalists for Poland Medalists at the 1975 Summer Universiade Polish Athletics Championships winners Deaths of competitors in athletics