Poking the Bear: Gest Kozakiewicza

In general, Americans love sports. But Americans didn’t follow the 1980 Summer Olympics particularly closely.

The reason? The 1980 Summer Olympics were held in Moscow – and the US was boycotting the games due to the Soviet Union’s December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan. With no US Olympic Team competing, most American’s weren’t particularly interested in those games.

In a way, that’s a pity. Because that means that most Americans, including myself, missed one of the great gestures of defiance of the Cold War.

Or, more precisely, two of them.

. . .

1980 was a rough year in Poland. At the time of the Summer Olympics, Poland – perhaps then the most restless of the Soviet Warsaw Pact nations – was in the midst of serious labor unrest. (Two months later, this labor unrest would give rise to Solidarity.) And Poland’s historical distrust (many would say dislike) of Russia was showing again.

Still, Poland sent a team to the Moscow Olympics that summer. And one of those on the team was a pole vaulter named Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz.

Kozakiewicz had had a generally successful – but turbulent – career as a pole vaulter for the Polish national team. He’d competed in the Olympics previously, in 1976; however, he’d injured himself early during that competition and finished 11th. He was a former European champion, and for a time held the world record in the pole vault. But he was somewhat of a free spirit; he’d been suspended repeatedly for insubordination and poor performance.

Further, 1980 hadn’t started particularly well for Kozakiewicz. However, the month prior to the Olympics Kozakiewicz had briefly held the world record in the pole vault. So he was definitely a threat to medal, if not win the competition in Moscow.

The pole vault final was held on 30 June 1980 at Moscow’s Central Lenin Stadium. Predictably, the crowd was solidly behind the Soviet favorite, Konstantin Volkov. And the crowd’s sportsmanship left much to be desired; they jeered all non-Soviet competitors in the pole vault.

The crowd’s behavior irritated Kozakiewicz. And as a Pole, it’s likely he wasn’t all that fond of Russia anyway.

So he decided he’d give the Soviet crowd his best – along with a piece of his mind.

Kozakiewicz cleared 5.70 meters – the highest height yet cleared during the competition. He then secured the win by clearing 5.75 meters (the world record in the pole vault, set by Philippe Houvion of France just before the Olympic games began, was only 2 cm higher at 5.77 meters).

But that’s not what made him famous.

What made Kozakiewicz famous was his conduct after each of those two vaults. After clearing each of those heights, he turned to the pro-Soviet crowd and summed up his feelings (and those of many if not most of his countrymen towards the Soviet Union) with the following gesture:

Finally, for good measure Kozakiewicz vaulted again, clearing 5.78 meters – and setting a new world record in the pole vault. That hadn’t happened at the Olympics since 1920.

Predictably, the Soviets were not amused. After the Games, the Soviet Ambassador to Poland demanded that Kozakiewicz’s Olympic Medal be stripped from him due to his “insult to the Soviet people.”

The Polish government’s response was perfect – and hinted at Poland’s true feelings towards Russia (and thus the Soviet Union). Poland’s government refused to strip Kozakiewicz of his medal. The official response of the Polish government was that Kozakiewicz’s arm gestures “had been an involuntary muscle spasm caused by his exertion.”

The crude gesture known elsewhere as the bras d’honneur (as well as by other names) became known in Poland as “gest Kozakiewicza”. It was viewed there as symbolizing resistance to Soviet domination of Poland.

Poking the bear, indeed. (smile)

Category: Historical