Jacek Wszoła

Jacek Roman Wszoła (born 30 December 1956 in Warsaw, Poland) is a retired Polish high jumper best known for winning gold and silver medals at the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics respectively. Wszoła is also a one-time world record holder with the result of 2.35 metres.

Jacek Wszoła

Jacek Wszoła in 2007
Personal information
Born	(1956-12-30)30 December 1956 Warsaw, Polish People’s Republic
Height	1.95 m (6 ft 5 in)[1]
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	High jump
Club	AZS Warszawa
Coached by	Stanisław Janowski Roman Wszoła
Medal record Men's athletics Representing  Poland Olympic Games 1976 Montreal High jump 1980 Moscow High jump European Indoor Championships 1977 San Sebastián High jump 1980 Sindelfingen High jump European Junior Championships 1975 Athens High jump Universiade 1977 Sofia High jump

Biography

With his father Roman being an athletics coach, Jacek Wszoła was close to the sport since a very young age. He, eventually, also gave it a try – initially training for the hurdles before switching to high jump.

Wszoła started competing in 1971[2] and by 1974, aged just 17, made his first national senior team for the 1974 European Championships in Rome finishing fifth. His first international title came a year later in Athens where he became the European Junior Champion.

Wszoła, then 19 years old, was a big surprise at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal where, competing in heavy rain, he managed to win over the favourites. Incidentally, shortly before the Games his father-coach made him train on wet tartan to prepare him for such circumstances.[2]

Following his success in the Olympic year, Wszoła won gold medals at the 1977 European Indoor Championships in San Sebastián and the 1977 Summer Universiade in Sofia. The following season was much less successful as he only managed seventh place at the 1978 European Indoor Championships in Milan and fourth at the 1978 European Championships in Prague.

In 1980, soon before the Olympics, Wszoła was back in form breaking the world record with 2.35 metres. At the Moscow Olympics, however, he only finished second behind the East German Gerd Wessig who also beat his world record by one centimetre. One month after the Olympics he got seriously injured at a domestic meet in Poznań tearing ligaments in his ankle which ruled him out of the sport for 18 months.[1][3] Wszoła was never able to regain his old form.

After missing out the entire 1981 season, Wszoła made a comeback in 1982 competing at the 1982 European Championships in Athens where he got into a dispute with his own national federation. After the qualification round, it was noticed that he competed in shoes of a different manufacturer than was then the official sponsor of the Polish team. As Wszoła refused to compete in the shoes provided by his federation, he was not allowed to start in the final and was sent back home.[2][3] For this dubious infringement Wszoła was disqualified for six months.[4]

The following year was also not very successful with Wszoła finishing only 11th in his last Universiade in Edmonton and 13th in the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki. In 1984 Poland, under pressure from the Soviet Union, boycotted the Los Angeles Olympic Games instead sending its athletes to the alternative competition, the Friendship Games in Moscow. The competition took place in a pouring rain, and Wszoła, having witnessed one of the athletes breaking an arm, decided to fake an injury to avoid a real one.[2][5]

His last major international outing was the 1987 European Indoor Championships where he only managed eleventh place. The following year, he failed to make the Polish team for the 1988 Summer Olympics. Wszoła finished his professional career in 1989[6] although he later competed in masters competitions, among others winning the M40 category at the 1997 European Masters Championships.[7]

Personal life

His wife Krystyna was also an athlete. They have two children, Jacek and Anna.[6]

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing  Poland
1974	European Championships	Rome, Italy	5th	2.19 m
1975	European Indoor Championships	Katowice, Poland	11th	2.16 m
	European Junior Championships	Athens, Greece	1st	2.22 m
1976	Olympic Games	Montreal, Canada	1st	2.25 m
1977	European Indoor Championships	San Sebastian, Spain	1st	2.25 m
	Universiade	Sofia, Bulgaria	1st	2.22 m
	World Cup	Düsseldorf, West Germany	3rd	2.24 m^1
1978	European Indoor Championships	Milan, Italy	7th	2.21 m
	European Championships	Prague, Czechoslovakia	6th	2.21 m
1979	World Cup	Montreal, Canada	2nd	2.27 m
	Universiade	Mexico City, Mexico	4th	2.26 m
1980	European Indoor Championships	Sindelfingen, West Germany	2nd	2.29 m
	Olympic Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	2nd	2.31 m
1982	European Championships	Athens, Greece	3rd (q)	2.21 m^2
1983	Universiade	Edmonton, Canada	11th	2.20 m
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	13th	2.23 m
1984	Friendship Games	Moscow, Soviet Union	4th	2.15 m
1987	European Indoor Championships	Liévin, France	11th	2.20 m

¹Representing Europe
²Did not start in the final

References

1. Sports-Reference profile
2. Leniarski, Radosław (24 October 2011). "Jacek Wszoła o olimpijskim złocie w Montrealu i porażce w Moskwie" (in Polish). sport.pl. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
3. "Aleja Gwiazd Sportu: Jacek Wszoła" (in Polish). Aleja Gwiazd Sportu. 27 October 2000. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
4. Wszoła, Jacek (1984). Poczet polskich olimpijczyków 1924–1984: Monachium '72, Montreal '76 (in Polish). Warsaw: Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza. p. 69.
5. Klimas, Bartosz (9 July 2008). "Olimpijski cierń sprzed lat" (in Polish). Rzeczpospolita. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
6. "Wszoła: nie czuję się pięćdziesięciolatkiem" (in Polish). sport.wp.pl. 29 December 2006. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
7. Polish Masters Athletic Association

Records
Preceded by Vladimir Yashchenko	Men's High Jump World Record Holder 2m35 equalled by Dietmar Mögenburg on 1980-05-26 1980-05-25 – 1980-08-01	Succeeded by Gerd Wessig