Józef Szmidt
Józef Szmidt ( born March 28, 1935 as Josef Schmidt in Miechowitz in Bytom ) is a former Polish track and field athlete of German descent, the beginning of the 1960s the world's best triple jumper was. His nickname was " Silesian kangaroo ".
- 2.1 Poland
- 2.2 International Championships
Life
Youth
Józef Szmidt was born in 1935 as a citizen of the German Reich in a German family, his name originally wrote Josef Schmidt. As a Polish administration was established in the spring of 1945 in Silesia, the family as hundreds of thousands of other residents of the Upper Silesian industrial district of expulsion and forced resettlement was omitted because the professionals were needed in the factories and municipal companies.
After the "Decree of 10 November 1945 amending and establishing first and last name of" the names were Polonized. Officially he was now called " Józef Szmidt " from his older brother Eberhard was Edward 's sister Ingrid had to assume the name Irena. According to the company Szmidt spoke as well as his parents no word Polish until 1945.
People's Republic of Poland
After his retirement he remarked to a journalist that he had a distant relationship to politics and in the next elections to the Sejm would not participate. This statement was not printed, but came to officials of the Workers' Party and was understood by them as criticism of the regime. Szmidt lost his privileges as a successful athlete, his name was not mentioned in the media.
In view of this development it for an exit visa in the Federal Republic of Germany, according to German law, he had as a former citizen of the Reich never lost their German citizenship. However, these applications were rejected. Although Szmidt was by his own admission under surveillance by the authorities, he succeeded in 1975, to be included in the limited Fankontingent, which was allowed to accompany the Polish national football team to a qualifying match for the European Football Championship 1976 in Amsterdam. He broke away from the tour group and went into the Federal Republic. His remaining in Poland woman had to report daily to the local police station then. She was threatened that they will lose custody of the two children and they would be released for forced adoption. It long for her to smuggle the children out of the country and finally obtain for an appropriate bribe even the exit papers.
Federal Republic of Germany
The family settled in Lüdenscheid. Szmidt got in a local clinic a job as a physical therapist, through the mediation of the also German-born former Polish middle distance champion Stefan Lewandowski, who worked as a surgeon. His wife was employed as a surgical nurse.
Republic of Poland
1994 both returned to Poland. They bought a large plot of land not far from Drawsko Pomorskie in Western Pomerania, where they henceforth devoted to the goat farm and the cultivation of fruit trees. Szmidt has since lived in seclusion, invitations to ceremonies and galas former sports master, he has knocked out consistently.
Sports career
Poland
Szmidt came by his older brother Edward to athletics, which was in 1956 with the Polish sprint relay in the Olympic final. 1958 surpassed Józef Szmidt the first Polish triple jumper, the 16 -meter mark. In the Polish Championship in Olsztyn on August 5, 1960, he jumped 17.03 meters world record, making him the first triple jumper, which exceeded the 17 -meter mark. He won a total of ten Polish championship in the discipline (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971).
In 1961 he was also national champion in long jump. He also competed in sprint competitions and won three runner-up title at 100 meters (1958 ), 200 meters (1953 and 1958). In a country fight he even beat the Soviet master Edvīns Ozoliòš.
On the anniversary of his triple-jump world record in 2010 awarded him the honorary citizenship of the city of Olsztyn.
International Championships
Between 1958 and 1964 he won at all international championships. At the European Championships 1958 in Stockholm, he won with 16.43 meters the title before the Soviet world record holder Oleg Rjachowskij.
A month later at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, he won the Olympic record of 16.81 meters gold medal ahead of the two Soviet athletes Vladimir Gorjajew and Witold Kreyer. Also at the European Championships 1962 in Belgrade, he won gold in front of two Soviet Russians as well as at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964. His repeated victories over Russian rivals have not contributed to its popularity among his countrymen by his own estimation little. In the years of his two Olympic victories, he was elected in Poland each "Sportsman of the Year".
He joined again at the Olympic Games in 1968. But those obtained in the mountain air of Mexico City 16.89 meters ranged only for seventh place. His farewell to the international sport he took with him 36 years at the European Championships 1971 in Helsinki, where he did not make it past the 11th Place.