The winners walked away with the Olympic Laurels awards in five categories—architecture, film, photography, literature, and visual arts—during the ceremony at the Polish capital's Olympic Centre on Thursday.
Andrzej Kraśnicki, head of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), congratulated the winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Olympic Laurels, which aim "to recognise and honour works created out of a fascination with sports," according to officials.
"The awards you received are proof of our appreciation and respect for the high level of creativity inspired by sport and artistic sensitivity," he said.
He added that the "Olympic Laurels are one of the most important initiatives" by the Polish Olympic Committee and that the awards were "established as an expression of recognition and respect for those shaping the humanistic values of sport and its image in society."
Kraśnicki also said that the Polish Olympic Committee's "cultivation of the tradition of combining art with sports emphasises the importance we attach to culture and art in spreading Olympic values."
Andrzej Kraśnicki, head of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl). Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
The Gold Laurels went to outstanding cultural figures and intellectuals including Maria Rotkiewicz, a veteran academic and Olympic researcher, for her book Z radości życia (The Joy of Life), about Poland's first Olympic champion Halina Konopacka.
Veteran academic and Olympic researcher Maria Rotkiewicz, a former competitive diver and track-and-field athlete, was among those honoured by the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl) during the awards ceremony in Warsaw on Thursday. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
Meanwhile, well-known sports journalist Maciej Petruczenko was singled out for praise for his book Prześcignąć swój czas (To Beat the Time) about Poland’s most decorated Olympian Irena Szewińska, who has been posthumously named the world’s greatest female athlete of all time by US sports magazine Track & Field.
Sports journalist Maciej Petruczenko (centre) poses with his Gold Laurel. Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak
The other Gold Laurels went to architects Piotr Lewicki and Kazimierz Łatak, filmmaker Łukasz Palkowski, and photographers Aleksandra Szmigiel and Robert Hajduk.
Past Olympic Laurel winners include acclaimed composers Krzysztof Penderecki and Wojciech Kilar, sculptor Igor Mitoraj, and writer Tadeusz Różewicz.
Thursday's ceremony marked the 15th time the Olympic Laurels were handed out in the Polish capital. The coveted awards were first presented in 1969. They come in the form of a medal designed by sculptor Stanisław Sikora.
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Source: PAP, olimpijski.pl