KUCHARCZYK Karolina

Classification
T20, F20 (IPC, 20 Feb 2021)

Type of Impairment
Intellectual impairment (przegladsportowy.pl, 15 Sep 2016)

General
MOTHERHOOD
She gave birth to her son in 2017, but only took one month off from athletics after giving birth. She was determined to return to the sport as soon as she could as she was still frustrated with not winning gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "I came back to training one month after delivery. It was a difficult time. I cried many times during training, I thought that I couldn't do it. I also had this anger after the 2016 Paralympic Games, where I lost gold there to [Croatian long jumper] Mikela Ristoski. I wanted to come back to competition as quick as possible to show her who dominates in long jump. My son has given me an extra boost of motivation. Everything I do, I do for him. When I was a single, I could do whatever I wanted. Now it's different. My whole life is subordinated to him." (magazynsportowiec.pl, 20 Sep 2018, 14 Nov 2019)

EMOTIONAL MEDALS
A few days after she returned to Poland following her gold medal win at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, her grandmother passed away. A year later during the last visit in hospital she promised her grandfather that she would win a medal for him at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. She fulfilled the promise, but while she was in Brazil her grandfather died from a heart attack. "It's my personal tragedy, a day after winning a medal, my grandfather passed away, so I couldn't be happy about this medal. Fortunately, my grandpa saw my performance, he even recorded it as well as the opening ceremony for me, he just did not have time to see the closing ceremony. The medal from Rio is for him, and the gold from Qatar was for grandmother." (rp.pl, 03 Oct 2016; wtkplay.pl, 21 Dec 2016; przegladsportowy.pl, 15 Sep 2016)