Michał Śliwiński (Mykhaylo Slyvynsky uk, Михайло Сливинський; born February 5, 1970 in Dobrotvir,

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

) is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

/ Ukrainian/

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

sprint canoe A sprint canoe is a canoe used in International Canoe Federation canoe sprint. It is an open boat propelled by one, two or four paddlers from a kneeling position, using single-bladed paddles. The difficulty of balance can depend on how wide or nar ...

r, who has won six world championship titles over his long career. An ethnic Pole from Ukraine, Śliwiński represented the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

at the 1988 Olympics, winning the Canadian canoe C-1 500 m silver medal at the age of only eighteen. Over the next three years he dominated the event, winning consecutive

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

gold medals in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

and

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

. However, in the

1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to: *1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain *1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 ...

he had to settle for another silver medal behind Nikolay Bukhalov of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. The break-up of the Soviet Union affected Śliwiński's career greatly as the newly independent

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

did not win any world championship gold medals during the 1990s. Śliwiński, now specialising in the short sprint 200 m races, was still regarded as a top competitor at international events but he endured a frustrating sequence of four world championship bronze medals. With no 200 m races included in the Olympics he competed in the C-1 500 m at Atlanta 1996, finishing just outside the medals in fourth place. In 2001 he accepted an invitation to switch to representing Poland, a decision which dramatically revived his career. Although in his thirties he went on to win three more world titles. With partner

Marcin Kobierski Marcin Kobierski (born April 13, 1977) is a Polish sprint canoer who competed from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. He won two gold medals in the C-2 1000 m event at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, earning them in 2001 and 2 ...

he became C-2 1000 m champion in 2001 in

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 Joh ...

, Poland. In 2002 they retained their crown in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. Śliwiński's build-up to the Athens Olympics was beset with problems, not of his own making. In 2003 his partner Kobierski tested positive in a drugs test as did his most obvious left-handed replacement Michał Gajownik. Both were given two-year bans, ruling them out of the Olympics. After much debate young hopeful Łukasz Woszczyński was chosen to partner Śliwiński. At their first major competition together they finished in fourth place at the 2003 World Championships in Gainesville, Georgia,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(where the 1996 Olympic canoeing events took place on

Lake Lanier Lake Lanier (officially Lake Sidney Lanier) is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee Ri ...

.). In 2004 they became C-2 1000 m European champions in front of their home crowd in

. At the Athens Olympics they finished seventh in the C-2 1000 m final, the exhausted Woszczynski collapsing at the end of the race. The partnership was retained for the 2005 season. They took the C-2 500 m silver medal at the European championships in July but Woszczynski was then injured and unable to take part in the World Championships in Zagreb. It seemed as if Śliwiński would be left without a boat. However, when a member of Poland's four-man (C-4) 1000 m crew, Arkadiusz Tonski, also had to pull out injured, Śliwiński was called up as a last-minute replacement. The Polish four, ironically including the now rehabitated Gajownik, edged out the Romanian crew to take the gold medal. For the thirty-five-year-old Śliwiński it was the first C-4 gold of his long career. Śliwiński is a member of the Spojnia Warsaw club. He is 177 cm (5'10") tall and weighs 89 kg (196 lbs).

References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sliwinski, Michal 1970 births Living people Soviet people of Polish descent Ukrainian people of Polish descent Citizens of Poland through descent Canoeists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic canoeists of the Soviet Union Olympic canoeists of the Unified Team Olympic canoeists of Poland Olympic silver medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic silver medalists for the Unified Team Ukrainian emigrants to Poland Polish male canoeists Soviet male canoeists Ukrainian male canoeists Olympic canoeists of Ukraine Olympic medalists in canoeing ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in Canadian ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in kayak Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Lviv State University of Physical Culture alumni Sportspeople from Lviv Oblast