Waldemar Marszałek, one of the best and most famous motorboaters in the history of this sport, has died at the age of 82, his family confirmed to PAP.
A Varsovian by birth, he grew up on the right bank of the Vistula and has been associated with the longest of Polish rivers for his entire sporting life. Just like with the Polonia Railway Sports Club, which he has never betrayed, just like the best Polish sportswoman in history, winner of seven Olympic medals in athletics, Irena Szewińska.
“I came to the club on Konwiktorska Street after reading an advertisement about recruitment for the motorboat section, published in >>Express Wieczorny
“I wasn’t a kamikaze. (…) I won’t deny it – I liked the adrenaline. When I got into the boat, I was devoid of emotion.”
In total, he won six world championship titles and a total of 27 medals at the world and European championships.
He survived many serious accidents and came close to death several times, including in April 1982, during a competition near Berlin on Lake Gatow, he even experienced clinical death.
“The wind was blowing hard at the time. I was at the front of the pack and at one point the boat with me shot up and then crashed into the lake. I lost consciousness. I was floating face down in the water,” the sportsman recalled.
He admitted, however, that even despite such experiences, the word “enough” never reached the tip of his tongue.
“Nothing like that even crossed my mind. In the autumn of the same year, I won the competition in Berlin. When I was standing on the podium, the then European champion, the Swede Lei Lindel, kissed my hand. The following season, I won another world championship title,” he recalled years ago in an interview with PAP.
The marshal also suffered a rib-punctured lung, a severed tendon in his leg, a shattered hip, a broken femur, a skull injury, a damaged optic nerve and a torn heel.
“I wasn’t a kamikaze. I didn’t want to kill myself. I tried to drive carefully because I felt sorry for the equipment. But you can’t predict everything that can happen to you at a speed of 200 km per hour. I won’t deny it – I liked the adrenaline. When I got into the boat, I was devoid of emotions,” he emphasized.
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The capital’s Museum of Sports and Tourism houses many “Marshal’s” sports memorabilia, with the most valuable exhibit – the legendary boat with the starting number 11.
In the years 1998-2018 he was a local government official and a member of the Council of the Capital City of Warsaw.
Following in their father’s footsteps were his sons – the late Bernard and Bartłomiej, who races in Formula 1 motorboats. (PAP)
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