Ryszard Jan Szurkowski (12 January 1946 – 1 February 2021) was a Polish road bicycle racer, widely regarded as a legend of the sport in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Career

He was a silver medalist in the team trial at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

and

1976 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 ...

Summer Olympics, and also won three gold medals at the World Cycling Amateur Championships, two in 1973 (including one in the individual road race) and one in 1975. He won the

Peace Race The Peace Race (german: Friedensfahrt, cs, Závod míru, sk, Preteky mieru, russian: Велогонка Мира (), pl, Wyścig Pokoju , french: Course de la Paix, it, Corsa della Pace, ro, Cursa Păcii) was an annual multiple stage bicycl ...

four times, in 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1975. He also came first twice in

Dookoła Mazowsza The Dookoła Mazowsza (Around Mazovia) is a cycling race held annually in Mazovia, Poland. It was first held in 1951 and has been held annually since, with the exceptions of 1981–1982, 1991–1992, and 1994–1996. The most successful rider is Z ...

, in 1977 and 1978. His son, Norbert, died in the

September 11 attack The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

s. In 2018, Szurkowski crashed during a bike race in Germany, suffering serious injuries, including a crushed spinal cord that left him paralyzed. After five months of therapy, he regained some of the sensation in his toes. He died on 1 February 2021, twenty days after his 75th birthday.

References

External links

* 1946 births 2021 deaths People from Milicz County Polish male cyclists Cyclists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Cyclists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic cyclists of Poland Olympic silver medalists for Poland Olympic medalists in cycling Sportspeople from Lower Silesian Voivodeship Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics UCI Road World Champions (elite men) {{Poland-Olympic-medalist-stub