Our only hope is in sport! Only in sport can you find examples of honorable gestures, demeanors and deeds. That we act fairly towards each other in our sport is a given. You can always feel the sports-like, friendly atmosphere here. Sometimes, extraordinary situations take place as well, like the one at this year’s Polish Championships. A reminder! Grzesiek Nowotarski got injured before getting to the final with Damian Zaorski. What did Damian do?

He gave up his fight saying that he had no interest fighting with an injured opponent and that he would wait for a different opportunity.

Damian Zaorski on this matter:

«I’ve already finished the final duel. I gave it up because my opponent Grzegorz Nowotarski got a serious injury of the right shoulder. My victory in this situation would make no sense and have no value. Grzesiek’s health is the most important. I believe that we will have another opportunities to revenge this duel soon. It’s still my best result in my short armwrestling career. I want to thank all my opponents for great duels.»

And that’s all! Not much but also a lot. We don’t have a “Fair Play” prize at our competitions – too bad!

So instead of a prize – an honest laudation for Damian. Thank you, congratulations and...

I have to admit: you made me feel ashamed! I’ve never done such a fair thing in my twenty-year-long adventure with sports. I’ve just realized that. Nobody could ever praise me for playing fair. I often played dirty and used “dirty measures” to win at all cost. I can’t make up for it now but you gave me a real lesson!

PeSzy

Now, for the youth, as an example and a reminder!

Once upon a time there was a great skier in Poland. In 1968 he started in the World Cup. He made one really quick slide but missed a gate. The referees didn’t notice so the only one who knew of this mistake was the skier himself. Andrzej Bachleda-Curuś went up to the referees himself and told them about the missed gate. His slide was not ranked and he placed really far down the ranking. As a token of appreciation he was granted a fair play prize given out by UNESCO.

Another time, our Polish cyclist gave his backup bike to his biggest opponent and allowed him to cycle farther and win. The cyclist was of course Ryszard Szurkowski (1946-2021).

I had the honor of cycling about 20km next to this phenomenal figure!

https://wrotapodlasia.pl/pl/sport/sport/ryszard-szurkowski-wspomnienia-felieton.html