Szurkowski was one of the biggest names in Polish cycling. His career as a competitive cyclist saw him win Olympic and world championship medals for Poland in the 1970s.
Z głębokim żalem informujemy, że dziś w wieku 75 lat zmarł jeden z najwybitniejszych polskich kolarzy w historii,...
Posted by Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego on Monday, February 1, 2021
He won an Olympic silver in the team time trial at the Munich Games in 1972 and followed up with another at Montreal in 1976.
He won three golds and a silver during world cycling amateur championships: at Barcelona in 1973, Montreal in 1974, and Mettet, Belgium, in 1975.
Szurkowski was also a four-time winner of the Peace Race, an annual cycling event that was held in the former Eastern Bloc from 1948 to 2006.
Szurkowski won that race in 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1975.
He was coach of Poland’s national cycling team from 1984 to 1988.
In 2018, Szurkowski underwent multiple spinal surgery and facial reconstruction after he suffered a serious injury in a crash during a veterans’ bike race in Cologne, Germany.
The accident left him paralyzed.
Ryszard Szurkowski, pictured in 2019. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kaczmarczyk
Public broadcaster Polish Radio in December 2018 held an on-air auction to benefit Szurkowski.
Many Polish sports celebrities, including retired tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska, footballer Robert Lewandowski and ski jumper Kamil Stoch, at the time donated personal items for the auction.
(gs-tf)
Source: IAR, PAP, polskieradio24.pl, TVP Sport
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