Stefan Kostrzewski

One of the most successful Polish track athletes during the interwar period, Stefan Kostrzewski set 54 national records and won 27 gold medals at the Polish athletics championships. Before beginning his athletics career Kostrzewski joined the Polish Army and fought in the Polish-Bolshevik war in 1920. He then graduated from the Copernicus University in 1922 before starting to study at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warszawa University of Technology later the same year.

Kostrzewski started to compete in athletics in 1920 when he joined ŁKS Łódź, remaining with the club until 1923 when he then represented AZS Warszawa. During the 1920s and 1930s he was a 54-time Polish record holder in multiple distances (400 metres, 500 metres, 800 metres, 1,500 metres, 2,000 metres, 110 metres hurdles, 200 metres hurdles, and 400 metres relay). His national record in the 400 metres hurdles stood from September 1929 until September 1954.

At the Polish championships Kostrzewski won 44 medals including 27 golds with victories in the 400 metres (1927), 800 metres (1925–29), 500 metres (1923), 110 metres hurdles (1926), 400 metres hurdles (1924–29, 1934), 3,000 metres steeplechase (1929), 3,000 metres team (1924), 4 x 100 metres relay (1924. 1926, 1929, 1934), and the 4 x 400 metres relay (1924–28, 1937). In addition to his haul of golds at the national championships he won 14 silver and three bronze medals.

Kostrzewski competed at his first Olympics at the 1924 Paris Games where he ran in the 800 metres and the 1,500 metres but did not advance from the heats in either race. Four years later at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics he reached the semi-finals of the 400 metres hurdles. He also ran in the 400 metres and the 4 × 400 metres relay in Amsterdam but did not progress past the opening round in either.

In 1930 Kostrzewski returned to serve in the military, reaching the rank of second lieutenant by 1933. In World War II he fought in the September Campaign before fighting with the Polish Army in west France. By the end of the war he had become a captain and was awarded with the Cross of Valour. In 1949 Kostrzewski moved to Canada where he continued with his profession as an architect, working in Galt, Ontario, until his retirement.

Personal Bests: 400 – 50.0 (1926); 800 – 1:55.0 (1929); 1500 – 4:10.0 (1934).