Michał Gajownik (15 December 1981 – 13 November 2009) was 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 2000 to 2006. He won three medals at the
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with two golds (C-4 1000 m:
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
,
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 a bronze (C-4 500 m: 2005). He was born in
Chrzanów.
Gajownik won silver medal in C-1 500 m in Junior European Championships in 1998, after year became C-2 500 m Junior World Championships silver medalist. The following year, at age 19, he became senior European C-2 1000 m champion with
Paweł Baraszkiewicz
Paweł Baraszkiewicz (born May 20, 1977, in Działdowo) is a Polish sprint canoeist who has competed since the mid-1990s. He has been world champion four times in the Canadian canoe C-2 event with partner Dani ...
who became later a member of Posnania
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
. At the
Sydney Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...
, however, they finished in
eighth place.
After Sydney, Gajownik concentrated on the four-man canoe. At the start of the 2003 season, however, he tested positive for nandrolone – same as
Marcin Kobierski, twice medalist in C-2 1000 m. Both denied the charge but were given a two-year ban, which cost them a place at the
2004 Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
.
Gajownik returned to competitive action in 2005. He was a member of the
Posnania Poznań
RC Posnania () is a Polish rugby union club based in Poznań, Poland. It was founded in 1906 as a sport club. In 1956 the rugby union team was created.
Honours
* Rugby Ekstraliga
** Runners-up: 1962
* Polish Cup:
** Winner:(1): 1974
See also
*Ru ...
club until 2006. He was killed in a
traffic collision on 13 November 2009 in Chrzanów.
References
*
*
*
Posnania Club
External links
*
1981 births
2009 deaths
Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Olympic canoeists for Poland
Doping cases in canoeing
Polish male canoeists
Polish sportspeople in doping cases
Road incident deaths in Poland
People from Chrzanów
ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in Canadian
Sportspeople from Lesser Poland Voivodeship
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