Szymon Kołecki

Szymon Kołecki (born October 12, 1981 in Oława) is a Polish weightlifter, silver medallist at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Kołecki represents the team of Górnik Polkowice, his career was put on hold in early 2000s, because of a serious back injury. He returned to weightlifting in late 2005, winning European Championships a few months later. He was also a member of the Polish team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Solidarity with the Tibetans

After the 2008 Tibetan unrest, he stated : "I am outraged by what's going on in Tibet. When I read about it, I can hardly believe I'll compete in a country that bloodily suppresses street protests and persecutes people who don't agree with the party. I can't believe the Chinese have launched an immense operation to block Lhasa". To mark is solidarity, August 17, he shaved his head and commented : "This haircut is from this morning. I can't directly say why I did it. It's connected with certain things that the Olympic Charter forbids. But I will say that it's symbolic". [ [http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22543&article=Polish+Silver+Medalist+Kolecki's+Tibet+protest Polish Silver Medallist Kolecki's Tibet protest] , Phayul.com website]

Achievements

* Olympic Games Sydney 2000 - silver
* World Record in clean and jerk, 232 kg in Sofia, April 29, 2000 [cite web|title=Progress of World Records, Men's 94 kg|publisher=International Weightlifting Federation|url=http://www.iwf.net/results/record_prog.php]
* World Championships - silver twice (Athens 1999 and Santo Domingo 2006), bronze twice (Antalya 2001, Chiang Mai 2007)
* European Championships - gold five times (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2008) and one silver.
* Olympic Games Beijing 2008 - silver

References

External links

* [http://www.szymonkolecki.com/ Szymon Kołecki's official webpage]
* [http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ko/szymon-kolecki-1.html Szymon Kołecki's history of competition]