David Tomala is our most sensational Olympic champion from Such. The already experienced athlete (born in 1989) took part in great events over the years, but did not achieve great successes. Tomala walked 20 km all his life, just before the Olympics in Tokyo he changed the distance to 50 km and it was a sensational decision. He became a sensational Olympic champion.
Tomala’s success was also appreciated by fans who placed him in 4th place in the poll for the best Polish athlete. During the Champions of Sport gala, he repeated what he had declared earlier in an interview with Sport.pl that he would submit his medal to the auction. Tomala, with his performance during the gala, gained the fans’ sympathy.
The money will be donated to help 12-year-old Kacper Woźniak.
Below we publish an interview with David Tomala, in which he declared his intention to submit the Olympic medal to the auction. The text was published on Sport.pl on December 14th
£ ukasz Jachimiak: Congratulations on your big heart! And now tell me please – you were inspired by what Maria Andrejczyk did right after the Olympics and what Piotr Ma³achowski did many times?
Dawid Tomala: Was I inspired? Certainly also. We have known Piotrek for years and he has always had my appreciation for what an athlete he is, but also for what a human he is. But I have always had a dream to save someone’s life. Maybe for money from bidding I will not do the gold medal in Tokyo, but I will certainly improve the quality of life for someone, and contribute to the fact that someone will be better. And this is just the beginning of my helping path. Because I’m opening a foundation.
ToMali Winners – a cool name. Who exactly should this foundation be for? For sick kids?
– I want to help, above all, difficult youth, kids from orphanages. I want to give them an opportunity to break through sport. I want to appeal to kids with a difficult character. You often need this character in sport. Determined.
You say that you have admired Ma³achowski, who works for charity, for a long time and that you have dreamed of helping for a long time, and that you donate the Tokyo medal only four months after the Olympics. Was it difficult for you to give it back or was it rather difficult for you to organize everything?
– I haven’t had this medal yet, and I had the idea that if I had, I would give it up for an auction and help someone that way. I’m saying the truth. But the last few months have been so absorbing for me, there was so much going on in my life that I couldn’t calmly deal with this matter. I still can’t, actually. I am now in military training. But I had to finally start working with the auction of the medal, and the deadline is really very good now, because Christmas is coming and it’s worth making gifts.
But the decision to “give up” emotionally probably costs a little too?
– Someone told me that I am handing over the Olympic gold medal for the second time in history.
Who was first?
– Apparently Otylia Jêdrzejczak.
Right, Otylia, after reading the book “Oskar and Pani Róża”, decided to auction off her gold and donated over PLN 250,000 to help children suffering from leukemia.
– Cool! I read it once too! And I was the one with the medal for three months. I have it for most of my photos, I took it to all my meetings and I let everyone who wanted to enjoy it. I know it’s cool, because only once in my life I could touch the Olympic goldbefore I got mine. It was the 2012 Olympics in London. Then Tomek Majewski gave me his medal for a while. I traveled with my gold around schools, the kids looked at this medal, allied with it, saw that it is something tangible, that it is real, that you can fight it, you just need to work on it. Finally, the time has come that I enjoyed this medal enough and now it can bring a lot of joy to someone else.
How did you choose the child who will be helped by the money from the auction?
– I asked my friends to help me. For almost a month every day, from 6 am to 6 pm, I am in training, so I really wouldn’t get it myself. My friends did a great job – they sent me a lot of fundraisers on siepomaga.pl, I read the stories of many kids who are in a difficult situation. And I chose Kacper because he wants to start walking on his own. For this, he needs PLN 150,000 for the operation. I have a medal so it will be a nice reference. And a nice beginning to help others who want to go.
So now your plan is that you win a medal every year and you bid for it?
– Ha, ha, good, I’m into it! Seriously, I would like to win and bid more medals!
But the foundation’s roadmap isn’t just about winning and bidding on medals, is it?
– Well, these medals would be too few, even if I would win them every year, at every championship event. Behind the foundation there is, of course, a group of people who deal with everything, including acquiring sponsors. I don’t get into it, I don’t have time. All I know is that everything is going well. And although I do not want to confuse, I will say that I have nice people, I believe that it will work out and I will be an ambassador with pleasure.
On January 9 you have planned the foundation’s inaugural gala, and on January 8 you probably hope to be high in the poll for the best Polish sportsmen for 2021?
– It looks like a planned, strong weekend, but the truth is that January 10th is going to a training camp and January 9th was the only sensible date for the official start of the foundation’s operation. Now I’m in the army, I’m almost back for Christmas and then I want to spend some time with my family, and then I will have to leave at any moment and get in shape for the new season.
What are you doing in the military? What is this training for?
– I want to join the army and be an athlete-soldier. I want a perspective for the future.
Are you running on the training ground?
– Yes. The training lasts for a month. I run around the range, shoot, learn the drill and the rules, I have a lot of practical classes and a lot of theory. I take a condensed dose because it is a special, accelerated training for athletes. We are exhausted, this is the tip and I can see that we are all running on fumes. We lock each day for 12 hours. We are barracks in the Center of Engineering and Chemical Forces in Wroc³aw.
Let’s go back to the medals and the auction – 150,000 is the most realistic amount that can be achieved? ¯abka paid 200,000 for Maria Andrejczyk’s silver.
– Yes, I hope the amount will be high.
Where can you compete for your medal?
– There is no auction page yet. I will be on training until Sunday and only after my return I will start something. For now, all interested parties are kindly asked to submit offers on my e-mail – [email protected]
Have you already received any offers?
– Yes, I have already received large money offers, but I do not want to decide that, for example, 200,000 is enough. I prefer to do an auction, collect as much as possible and then pay as much as is needed for Kacper’s operation, and donate the rest to the foundation and use it for the next good cause. I believe that this is the beginning of something very fun for years to come.
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