One of the recent greats of the discus, Piotr Malachowski from Poland will retire at the end of the 2020 season.
Malachowski has won two European titles (2010 and 2016) and one world title (2015) in the discus but the 36-year-old is yet to win an Olympic title in his three appearances thus far.
After winning silver at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing behind the man who currently coaches him - Gerd Kanter from Estonia - Malachowski was on the cusp of the title eight years later in Rio de Janeiro until Germany’s Christoph Harting prised the gold medal away from the Pole with a lifetime best of 68.37m in the sixth round.
This competition evoked memories of the 2009 IAAF World Championships when Christoph’s older brother Robert also produced a lifetime best with his sixth throw to supplant Malachowski who would have to wait another six years to land a global title in Beijing.
A winner at the European Team Championships in 2009...and 2019!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 11, 2019
The grand old man of the discus Piotr Malachowski won 12 points for the hosts in the final round of the discus. #ETCH2019 pic.twitter.com/Sw6OYtl0VH
Malachowski missed out on a place in the final at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha but the Pole is still performing at a very high level. He achieved a notable win on home soil at the European Athletics Team Championships in Bydgoszcz ahead of the prospective world champion Daniel Stahl from Sweden and also finished second for Team Europe at The Match.
Malachowski will continue his cooperation with Kanter in his final season of athletics and he has also drawn on the services of a sports psychologist to help him prepare mentally for his fourth and final Olympic appearance.
“We've had several conversations for now. I have forgotten about Qatar. I feel mentally rested,” Malachowski told Polish media. “There is a desire and the belief that I can throw far. I still dream about Olympic gold.”
Malachowski is one of the most popular figures on the Polish team not only for his fine performances in the circle but also for his philanthropy. Malachowski famously auctioned his Olympic silver medal from 2016 to raise funds for a young boy who needed treatment for a rare form of cancer.
Malachowski is seventh in the world all-time list for the discus with his Polish record of 71.84m set in Hengelo in 2013.
World all-time top-10 in the discus
1. 74.08m Jurgen Schult (GDR)2. 73.88m Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)
3. 73.38m Gerd Kanter (EST)
4. 72.34m Ben Plucknett (USA)
5. 71.86m Yuriy Dumchev (URS)
= 71.86m Daniel Stahl (SWE)
7. 71.84m Piotr Malachowski (POL)
8. 71.70m Robert Fazekas (HUN)
9. 71.50m Lars Riedel (GER)
10. 71.26m John Powell (USA)
= 71.26m Ricky Bruch (USA)
= 71.26m Imrich Bugar (CZE)