Anita Wlodarczyk, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in hammer throwing, will miss the rest of the season due to a left thigh injury she suffered while chasing down a thief who tried to break into her car. The Polish star successfully underwent surgery on Monday.
Wlodarczyk shared some photos of the aftermath of the incident on Friday. In one image, she is flexing next to her car while some scratches and handprints can be clearly seen on the white paint of one of the doors.
The 36-year-old Olympian said she was able to take care of the thief all by herself and then handed them over to the police when the arrived on the scene.
While her car did not get stolen or broken into, she "totally severed" her thigh muscle. Wlodarczyk wrote that at first she didn't notice anything was wrong because she did not feel any pain.
Wlodarczyk is undoubtedly one of the top athletes in her field. She has earned a total of 16 career medals in world competitions, including Olympic gold medals in each of the last three Olympics. Her post-surgery recovery will unfortunately keep Wlodarczyk from competing at the IAAF World Championships in July.
However, she is keeping a positive attitude and already planning her comeback.
"I remember very well what it was like two years before Tokyo, when I had knee surgeries. I went on a long, labor-intensive path to return to the sport, to return to the Olympic podium," she wrote in Polish. "Now I have great motivation to repeat it and in two years to stand on the podium in Paris again."
