Thirty years since the gold medal for TEXOM STAL Rzeszów. Rafał Wilk, Maciej Kuciapa, and others honored during the match

Before the start of the match between TEXOM STAL Rzeszów and #ORZECHOWAOSADA PSŻ Poznań, four former speedway riders who won the gold medal for the Podkarpacie club in the 1994 Polish Junior Team Championships were honored on the field of the Rzeszów stadium.

Rafał Wilk, Maciej Kuciapa, Rafał Trojanowski, Piotr Winiarz – this foursome took to the field before the previous match of TEXOM STAL to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their top podium finish in the 1994 Polish Junior Team Championships. In 1995, they repeated their success. In the following season, they took second place.

What is currently happening with the former speedway riders of the Rzeszów club? As is known, Maciej Kuciapa and Rafał Trojanowski remained in speedway. The former is the coach of the two-time Polish champions, ORLEN OIL MOTOR Lublin. The latter, among other things, was the manager of Wiktor Lampart and a coach for Lublin’s youth.

By far the most interesting story concerns Rafał Wilk. The former speedway rider, born in 1974, who represented clubs from Łódź, Gniezno, Krosno, and of course Rzeszów, suffered a serious track accident in 2006, which has left him wheelchair-bound. He later tried his hand as a coach for the Lublin team but parted ways with the position after more than two years. As a true athlete, Wilk did not intend to give up. He took up handbiking.

What is handbiking? It is a type of bicycle constructed in such a way that the driving force comes from the hands rather than the legs. As it turned out later, it brought him many successes. In 2012, during the Paralympic Games in London, he won two gold medals. A year later, he also became a two-time world champion in his discipline. At the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he repeated his success from four years earlier, but only in the time trial.

Currently, Wilk is preparing for the Paralympic Games in Paris. These will take place from August 28 to September 8 this year.

Marcin Rusewicz