MALACHOWSKI Piotr

General
RETIREMENT
He plans to retire after the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. He chose to remain in the sport for an additional year after the Games were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "My dream is to end my career at the Games and then say goodbye to the fans in Poland. There is still work to be done, and the time for emotions will come at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meeting in September. My plans have changed and you have to adapt to it. We are athletes, we like challenges, so you have to fight." He plans for his son, Henryk, to throw a discus alongside him at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial event. "Henryk will enter the ring with me to throw a discus. It will be a symbolic way to pass the torch." (polskatimes.pl, 21 Nov 2019; wp.pl, 23 Dec 2019; sport.pl, 29 Sep 2019; sport.pl, 08 Sep 2020; onet.pl, 21 Sep 2020; tuwroclaw.com, 31 Mar 2020; przegladsportowy.pl, 31 Mar 2021)

FUTURE PLANS
He has completed a management course and says he would like to work with manager Marcin Rosengarten after his retirement. "Marcin is very involved in athletics. I was a member of his organising team at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meeting in 2020. It was not easy. I might also work a bit with young athletes as a mentor, but not exactly as a coach. It's worth it to encourage young people, show them the right path, to help them avoid the mistakes I made." In 2021, he also co-founded the sports clothing label Forever Stronger alongside fellow Polish throwing athletes Konrad Bukowiecki, Pawel Fajdek and Marcin Krukowski, after they were dropped by their sponsors. (przegladsportowy.pl, 31 Mar 2021; sport.tvp.pl, 17 May 2021)

TRAINING UNDER A CHAMPION
In 2018 he began working under the guidance of Estonian discus thrower Gerd Kanter, who won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. "He knows exactly how to prepare an experienced athlete for a major event. Everything has changed - in warm-up, training and my attitude to the sport. Until now I never did a warm-up for half an hour before going to the gym and now we do running and stretching. Training is more intense." (tvp.pl 07 Jan 2019; se.pl, 21 Dec 2018)

SILVER MEDAL DONATION
He donated the silver medal he won in discus throw at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to raise funds for Olek Szymanski, a three-year-old child with retinoblastoma [eye cancer], to enable him to travel to the United States of America for treatment. "My silver medal is worth a lot more than a week ago. It is worth the health of little Olek." (bbc.co.uk, 25 Aug 2016; sport.tvp.pl, 09 Nov 2015)