Szymon Jerzy Ziółkowski (; born 1 July 1976 in Poznań) is a retired

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

hammer thrower and an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medal winner from Sydney 2000. He also won a gold medal at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton with a career best throw of 83.38 metres, and two silvers at the

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

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

editions in Helsinki and Berlin respectively.

Career

Before winning the 2000 Olympic gold medal he had won the gold medal at the 1994 World Junior Championships, finished tenth at the

1996 Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

and fifth at the 1998 European Championships and competed at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and 1999 World Championships without reaching the final. After the 2001 season three low-key seasons followed. He competed at the

2004 Olympic Games 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), ...

without reaching the final. After the 2005 World Championships, he finished fifth at the 2006 European Championships, seventh at the 2007 World Championships and fifth at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. At the World Athletics Final he finished fifth in

, seventh in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and eighth in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. In

2009 World Championships in Athletics The 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () were held in Berlin, Germany from 15–23 August 2009. The majority of events took place in the Olympiastadion, while the marathon and racewalking events started and finished at the Brandenburg ...

in Berlin he won silver medal with the result of 79.30m finishing 50 cm behind the Olympic champion of Beijing

Primož Kozmus Primož Kozmus (born 30 September 1979 in Novo Mesto) is a Slovenian hammer thrower. His gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin made him the first ever Slovenian athlete to win both titles. ...

. As of 2015, he is a member of the Sejm.

National honours

For his sport achievements, he received:
POL Polonia Restituta Kawalerski BAR

Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (5th Class) in 2000.
POL Polonia Restituta Oficerski BAR

Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (4th Class) in 2009.

Competition record

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ziolkowski, Szymon 1976 births Living people Polish male hammer throwers Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Poland Olympic gold medalists for Poland Sportspeople from Poznań World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Goodwill Games medalists in athletics World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games