Rafał Szukiel (born 5 November 1976) is a Polish former sailor, who specialized in the Finn class. He represented his country

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

at the

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

and came closest to the medal haul in the final race of his signature fleet, rounding out the top-ten spot. A senior member of the sailing roster at the University of Warmia and Mazury's sport academy in

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

(), Szukiel trained most of his competitive sporting career under the tutelage of his personal coach Tomasz Rumszewicz. Szukiel competed for the Polish sailing squad in the Finn class at the

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. A few months earlier, he was selected over the quota recipient and his older brother Wacław to lock the country's top Finn berth for the Games, based on his aggregate scores in a lineup of international regattas sanctioned by the

Polish Yachting Association The Polish Yachting Association () is the national governing body for the sport of sailing in Poland, recognised by the International Sailing Federation. In 1969 along with Les Glénans - France, Yacht Club de Morges - Switzerland, Casa di Vela ...

. Szukiel opened a set of two races with a blistering runner-up finish to head the leaderboard. Amid a streak of lowly marks and a suspension of the last two legs because of inclement weather, he found the best pressure to steer his way to fifth in the final race. Szukiel's cumulative marks attained in the series, however, dropped him steadily to tenth overall with 82 net points.

References

External links

* * * * 1976 births Living people Polish male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Poland Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Finn People from Mrągowo Sailors (sport) from Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship {{Poland-yachtracing-bio-stub