Wojtek Czyz

Wojtek Czyz
Full name	Wojtek Czyz
nation	Germany
birthday	July 30, 1980
place of birth	Wodzisław Śląski ,  Poland
Career
discipline	Sprint , long jump
status	resigned
Medal table
Paralympic Games gold 2004 Athens 100 m gold 2004 Athens 200 m gold 2004 Athens Long jump gold 2008 Beijing Long jump silver 2012 London Long jump bronze 2012 London 100 m bronze 2012 London 4 × 100 m World Championships for the Disabled gold 2006 Assen 100 m gold 2006 Assen 200 m gold 2006 Assen Long jump silver 2011 Christchurch Long jump IWAS World Games gold 2007 Taipei Long jump gold 2009 Bangalore 100 m gold 2009 Bangalore 4 × 100 m gold 2009 Bangalore Long jump gold 2011 Sharjah 100 m gold 2011 Sharjah 200 m gold 2011 Sharjah Long jump European Championships for the Disabled gold 2005 Espoo 100 m gold 2005 Espoo 200 m gold 2005 Espoo Long jump
last change: September 6, 2012

Wojtek Czyz or Wojciech Czyż (born July 30, 1980 in Wodzisław Śląski ) is a German athlete of Polish origin.

Life

Athletic career

Czyz was about to start a career as a footballer with the regional league team (at that time the nationwide third division level) SC Fortuna Cologne . Four days after his successful trial training there, on September 15, 2001, in a game against SV Niederauerbach , the last game for his previous club VfR Grünstadt , he suffered serious injuries to his left knee in a collision with the opposing goalkeeper and suffered a compartment syndrome . After a chain of medical errors and misjudgments was on September 23 in the University Hospital of the Saarland in Homburg his left leg above the knee amputation . He is therefore considered a thigh amputee.

He then completed a successful rehabilitation near Augsburg . He was motivated and looked after by, among others, Roberto Simonazzi , who works as a therapist at the clinic , a former athlete who was also amputated and won a total of five medals at the Summer Paralympics in 1988 and 1992 . Czyz soon found a successful entry into disabled sports and has since started in the T42 and F42 classification groups, with the T and F standing for the English names track ( de .: career ) and field (de .: field ). Just ten months after the accident on the soccer field, he became German champion in the 100-meter run and long jump in 2002, setting new German records in both disciplines.

In September 2004, after successfully qualifying for the Summer Paralympics in the Greek capital, Athens , he traveled - in his own words still as “nobody”, ie as a blank slate on the international stage . With three gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters as well as in the long jump , he achieved remarkable surprising successes and thus immediately moved into the public eye. In the following years Czyz recorded numerous victories in all major international competitions. At both the European Championships in Espoo in 2005 and the 2006 World Championships in Assen , the Netherlands , he once again secured the triple title . Finally, in September 2007, he also won the gold medal in the long jump at the renowned and prestigious IWAS World Games (then known as the World Wheelchair and Amputee Games ) in Taipei . A safety jump of 5.88 m was enough for him after five violations, because in view of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing , it was important not to jump too far. In order to create equal opportunities there, a point system was based on preliminary work. So the better he was in Bangalore, the further he would have had to jump in Beijing for a high score. Ralf Otto, head of the athletics department at the German Disabled Sports Association , expressed his opinion in this connection that this was a “farce without end” in terms of competitive sports.

The subsequent preparation for the 2008 Summer Paralympics was not ideal. Czyz suffered a crack in the metatarsal bone , underwent two operations on the stump of the leg and on the jaw, and also contracted Pfeiffer glandular fever . He therefore decided to forego his starts in the running disciplines in order to concentrate entirely on the long jump. This was held for the first time in a competition merged with the lower leg amputee class ( T44 ) and Czyz actually managed to defend his title. In the first attempt, he improved his own world record by 27 centimeters to 6.50 m.

The next four years - Czyz was now one of the most famous German disabled athletes - were marked by a total of six titles at the next two events of the IWAS World Games , 2009 in Bangalore and 2011 in Sharjah . In India , he was denied a triumph over 200 meters due to a technical defect: at the exit of the bend he lost his prosthesis with a lead of 15 meters . Due to the warm temperatures and the long wait for the start, she had heated up so much that the material became too soft and could not withstand the centrifugal forces . However, he won the German 4 x 100 meter relay for the first time . As part of this, he also wanted to run at his third Summer Paralympic Games , 2012 in London . In total, he competed in four disciplines. He finished the long jump competition with a width of 6.33 m and thus 1.02 m behind the new Olympic champion, T44 starter Markus Rehm . In the sprint over 200 meters, however, it was only enough for a fifth place - it was Czyz's first Paralympic competition without a medal and he commented on her with "It just went shitty". At the final over 100 meters, Czyz was third with a season best of 12.52 s and thus won the bronze medal. With a total of seven Paralympic medals, he is one of the most successful German disabled athletes of all time.

Private

Czyz emigrated to Germany in 1988 at the age of eight and moved in with his father, who lived in Kaiserslautern and who had previously separated from his wife. At the Heinrich-Heine-Gymnasium there he passed his Abitur in 1999 and studied at the German Sport University Cologne from 2002 . In addition, he works as an employee at Lotto Rheinland-Pfalz GmbH in Koblenz .

He is good friends with the soccer player Miroslav Klose , with whom he also shares the same sports advisor. On August 7, 2010, Czyz took part in the benefit game of the Fitness First Wintersport Stars against FC Bayern Munich and scored the only goal against the professionals with a final score of 11: 1.

Since May 2015 Wojtek Czyz has been very involved in the Sailing4handicaps project, where he sails around the world on a catamaran with his wife Elena Brambilla and builds human prostheses.

Top performances

discipline	place	Time / space	date	annotation
100 meters	Bangalore	12.26 s	November 26, 2009
200 metres	Espoo	25.75 s	August 27, 2005	former world record
Long jump	Beijing	6.50 m	September 2008	current world record

Awards

• 2004: Silver bay leaf
• 2004: German disabled athlete of the year

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christian Kamp: "I lack the physiological prerequisites for the Olympics" , on September 6, 2008 on faz.net ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) , accessed on September 1, 2012
2. ↑ Thomas Hahn: “Strengthened from the Crisis” , on October 4, 2007 on sueddeutsche.de ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ) , accessed on September 1, 2012
3. ↑ Christian Kamp: "The new old star Czyz" , on September 16, 2008 on faz.net ( Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ) , accessed on September 1, 2012
4. ^ Die Rheinpfalz , edition of November 29, 2009
5. ^ "Popow gets bronze - Whitehead gold" , on September 1, 2012 on olympia.ard.de ( Sportschau ), accessed on September 1, 2012
6. ^ "Popow sprints to gold, bronze for Czyz" , on September 7, 2012 at olympia.ard.de ( Sportschau ), accessed on October 15, 2012
7. ↑ Homepage of the German Sport University Cologne: Well-known students and alumni of the German Sport University Cologne
8. ↑ “Herberger Foundation: Run into a New Sports Life” , on March 28, 2012 at dfb.de ( German Football Association ), accessed on September 1, 2012

Web links

• www.wojtekczyz.de - Official website of Wojtek Czyz
• www.sailing4handicaps.de