Polish poet and journalist Kazimierz Wierzyński earned the gold medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics for his work Laur Olimpijski (Olympic Laurel) in the Art Competitions in the category Literature, Lyric Works. The work is comprised of impressionistic poems, one of them being a praise of famous long-distance runner Paavo Nurmi. The first parts of this cycle dedicated to sports were released in 1925/26 and published in 1927 as a collection of poems. It was a summary of important events and topics of sports of the 1920s. It also included descriptions of other athletes such as the famous Spanish goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora and the Norwegian world record holder in the pole vault Charles Hoff. Other topics include equal rights of women in sports and the increasing importance of sporting events.
Wierzyński was of Jewish descent and moved after World War I from Galicia to Warszawa, fighting for Polish independence. He studied philology at the University of Kraków and, later in Wien, Slavic and German languages and philosophy. In the 1920s he published several important impressionist works of poetry as one of the founders of the group of poets “Skamander”, and was a member of the Polish Academy of Literature. Wierzyński immigrated in 1939 first to France, and later to Portugal, Brazil, and the United States, but he died in 1969 in London.
Poland