Olympic Gold Medalist Anita Wlodarczyk Out for Season with Injury After Chasing Thief
June 15, 2022
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Anita Wlodarczyk will miss the rest of the hammer-throwing season because of a thigh injury that required surgery.
Per the Associated Press, Wlodarczyk tweeted she "totally severed" her thigh muscle while chasing down a thief who tried to break into her car last week.
"I will do everything to come back again to the top," she wrote on social media after undergoing surgery.
Wlodarczyk posted a picture of herself flexing on Twitter, along with an image of her vehicle that shows scratches and hand prints on one of the doors.
"I took the thief alone and gave them to the police," Wlodarczyk wrote about the incident (h/t Evelyn Watta of Olympics.com) "Unfortunately I paid for it with a muscle injury."
The surgery will keep Wlodarczyk from competing at the IAAF World Championships in July. She won gold at the World Championships four times from 2009 to 2017, including three in a row from 2013 to 2017.
Wlodarczyk was unable to go for four golds in 2019 after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery.
The 36-year-old is arguably the greatest women's hammer thrower in history. She has won 16 career medals (14 gold) in world competitions. The Polish superstar has won gold at each of the past three Olympics dating back to 2012.
Wlodarczyk set the world record for the longest hammer throw (82.29 meters) at the 2016 Games in London. She won gold at the Tokyo Games last summer with a throw of 78.48 meters in the final.
Since the women's hammer throw was added to the Olympic competition in 2000, Wlodarczyk is the only woman with multiple gold medals. China's Zhang Wenxiu is the only other woman with at least three medals in the event.