Władysław Komar

Nicknamed “King Kong Komar”, Władysław Komar did boxing in his youth and took up athletics and the shot put only in 1959, when he was already 19-years-old. During his career Komar competed at three Olympic Games, winning shot put gold in 1972, and four European Championships, winning bronzes in 1966 and 1971. Komar also won three silvers (1968, 1972, 1978) and two bronzes (1967, 1977) at the European Indoor Championships and was a 14-time Polish champion (1963-64, 1966-73, 1975-78). Komar also played rugby at the Polish Championships.

After finishing his sporting career, Komar launched a successful acting career, in both stage and film, appearing in more than 20 movies, including as Sobansky in the Soviet movie Boris Godunov (1986), as Jesus in Roman Polanski’s Pirates (1986) and as Uszat in Kiler (1997). Komar also ran for the Polish Parliament (Sejm) in the 1993 election as a member of the satirical political party Polish Beer-Lovers’ Party, but was unsuccessful.

On the evening of 17 August 1998, Komar and Olympic pole vault champion Tadeusz Ślusarski and former sprinter Krzysztof Świostek were returning from the Eugeniusz Pietrasika Memorial Cup, held in Międzyzdroje, when their car, driven by Ślusarski, collided with a car trying to pass them near the village of Ostromice on road E65. Komar and Ślusarski died on the scene, while the driver of the other car, former long sprinter Jarosław Marzec, died four days later in hospital. Świostek and Marzec’s wife Agnieszka survived the crash. Since 1999 a memorial tournament in memory of Komar and Ślusarski has been held in Międzyzdroje.

Personal Best: SP – 21.19 (1974).