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Olympic champ Kowalczyk auctions gold bar for clinic

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 20.10.2014 15:28
Olympic cross-country skiing champion Justyna Kowalczyk is auctioning off a gold bar she received for her win this year in the Sochi games in a bid to raise money for a cystic fibrosis clinic.

Justyna
Justyna Kowalczyk at a press conference in Warsaw on Monday. Photo: PAP/Bartlomiej Zborowski

Kowalczyk, like other Polish gold medallists, was presented with the bar by tycoon Jan Kulczyk, Poland's wealthiest man.

Last year she auctioned off a luxury car for the same cause.

The skier, who has had a public battle with clinical depression, stressed at a press conference on Monday that health is the most valuable thing in life.

“Because when you go to one of these hospitals and speak with ill people, and two weeks later you find out that one of the children has not made it, all gold bars and medals become unimportant,” she said.

Patients with cystic fibrosis are highly susceptible to bacterial infections, and Polish hospitals currently lack special isolation rooms, meaning that sufferers are exposed to additional risks of infection.

The gold bars that Kulczyk funded for Poland's winners in Sochi weigh 525 grams, with a market value of about 90,000 zloty (21,300 euro). However, Kowalczyk is keeping fingers crossed that she will raise more than the market value during the auction. (nh)

Source: IAR/PAP

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