Janusz Sidło

Who was Janusz Sidło?

Janusz Sidło was a Polish athlete, who competed in the javelin throw. He was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and later the Knight's Cross.

Sidło was multiple Polish champion in javelin. He participated in five Olympic Games, and five European Championships in Athletics.

In October 1953, he broke the European record in Jena. Sidło won two gold medals at the European Championships. In June 1956, he set the world record in Milan. Sidło went for the Olympic Games in Melbourne as a favourite. He had been leading the competition with the distance of 79.98 m and was close to the Olympic gold when he decided to lend his modern javelin to his friend, Egil Danielsen, who had been performing poorly. With the Pole's javelin Danielsen achieved the new world record of 85.71 m and won the gold medal, pushing Sidło down to the second place. Sidło's behaviour is considered one of the most beautiful fair play gestures in Olympic history.

In 1960, he took 8th place in the 17th Olympic Games at Rome. In 1962, he took 7th at Belgrade. In 1964, he took 4th at Tokyo. In 1966, he took 7th at Budapest. In 1968, he took 7th at Mexico City.