Otylia JEDRZEJCZAK

Otylia Jędrzejczak was Poland's first Olympic champion in swimming. She achieved this at the Athens Olympics in the 200 metre butterfly, without doubt her strongest distance. In that event, she has also won two world championships (2003 and 2005), four European titles (2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006) and three European short-course golds (2001, 2006-07). Jędrzejczak also broke the world record in this distance three times, of which one was in a short-course pool. Her only international title in another event came at the 2006 Europeans, when she claimed gold in the 200 freestyle. She has also medalled in the 400 free at the Athens Games (silver), and won one Olympic and three World Championship medals in the 100 butterfly. After her golden race in Greece, Jędrzejczak auctioned off her medal, with the proceeds (some US$ 80,000) going to combat leukemia in the children's hospital of Wrocław. Her career was brutally interrupted when she crashed her car into a tree during bad weather, killing her 19-year-old brother Szymon, who was also a swimmer. Refusing to take a suspended prison sentence, she was eventually convicted on appeal, and sentenced to community service and a suspension of her driving license. Although continuing to swim, her performances gradually declined, and she missed the finals in both major tournaments of 2008, the Europeans and the Olympics. After these poor results, she retired.