Maria Andrejczyk, a Polish Javelin Thrower won an Olympic Silver Medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. After winning it, she decided to auction her medal off for $125,000 with the intention of using that money to help an infant get life saving heart surgery. Maria then explained on Facebook that she discovered a fundraiser for an 8-month old boy in need of urgent surgery. The boy’s name is Miloszek Malysa and he had a serious heart defect and the family was in need of serious financial help to be able to help their son receive the appropriate surgery.

Then Maria promptly auctioned off her medal from the Olympic Javelin competition. Previously, Maria Andrejczyk missed a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics by 2 centimetres. Maria then from suffered a tragic shoulder injury that year and was forced to quit the 2017 competitions. She was then diagnosed with bone cancer in 2018 – all before her victory in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

Maria wrote on her Facebook page about the situation. As translated by ESPN and other sports networks “He already had a head start from Kubus – a boy who didn’t make it in time but whose amazing parents decided to pass on the funds they collected to the family. And in this way, I also wanted to help. It’s for him that I am auctioning off my Olympic Silver Medal.”

Zakba, a supermarket chain, won the auction bidding $125,00 on Instagram. The money that has been raised will allow the boy to get the necessary surgery needed for him to survive. He got his surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. After winning the auction, Zakba returned the prized medal to Maria Andrejczyk, making the money a donation for the boy.