Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz was a Polish pole vaulter who competed during the 1970s and 1980s.



Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz was a Polish pole vaulter who competed during the 1970s and 1980s. His most famous moment came during the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. In the final, Kozakiewicz was competing against the heavily favored Soviet athlete, Konstantin Volkov, in front of a hostile home crowd.

When Kozakiewicz cleared a height of 5.78 meters (18.9 ft), breaking the Olympic record, the Soviet crowd responded with boos and jeers. In response to the hostile atmosphere, Kozakiewicz raised his arm with a rude gesture known as the "Kozakiewicz gesture" towards the crowd. This gesture was seen as a defiant and bold response to the unsportsmanlike behavior of the crowd.

His gesture further fueled the tension and made him even more of a hero in Poland, while at the same time making him a target for criticism from the Soviet media and officials. After the Olympics, the Soviet ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz be stripped of his medal over his "insult to the Soviet people". The official response of the Polish government was that the gesture had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion.

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