Waldemar Legień

Waldemar Legiens ( born August 28, 1963 in Bytom ) is a Polish athlete who won 1992 each a gold medal in judo at the Olympic Summer Games in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona.

In 1981 he won at the Junior European Championships at lightweight. In 1985, he won his first major medal in the adult class when he was at the European Championship second in the Light Middleweight ( class to 78 kg), the same year he finished 5th at the World Championships. In 1986, he took third place at the European Championship. Legiens won bronze at the World Championship in 1987. His first major title he won at the Olympic Games in 1988, when he was able to defeat the West German titleholder Frank Wieneke in the final. He was again third in the 1989 World Series.

From 1990 Legiens occurred in the middleweight division at ( class to 86 kg) and was here at first European Champion. In 1991, he won his third world championship bronze medal in a row at the Olympic rehearsal in Barcelona. With the final victory over the French Pascal Tayot at the 1992 Olympics, he managed to become two-time Olympic gold medalist judoka as the fourth after Wim Ruska, Peter Seisenbacher and Hitoshi Saitō. By Legien weight class change occurred while the curiosity that both 1988 and 1992 Seisenbacher Legiens the Olympic champion in the middleweight won his second gold medal. Only in 2004 was achieved with Tadahiro Nomura a judoka the third Olympic victory in a row. In addition to his medals at international championships Legiens also won three World Cup tournaments: 1989 in Warsaw, in 1990 in Rüsselsheim and 1991 in Leon thing.

The 1.80 m wide Legiens fought for GKS Czarni Bytom and studied in Gdansk. He was awarded the 7th Dan and since the end of his active career working as a coach.