Never imagined Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz that a celebration of his would unleash an international conflict. Nor that the greatest achievement of his career as a pertiguista would end up forcing him into exile. Much less that it would become the icon of a social revolution that would end the fall of communism in Poland.
So when the 30 of July 1980 assured the olympic gold When overcoming the bar in 5.75 meters, he did not hesitate to dedicate a cut of sleeves to the 70,000 soviets that crowded the Lenin Stadium in Moscow and they hadn’t stopped whistling at him throughout the contest. Then he would also jump 5.78m to beat the second and so far the last world pole record in the history of the Games. And I would repeat celebration.
The image of the ‘Koza’ comb spread like wildfire across the planet, with the exception of the Soviet Union, where the production vetoed the video and the photographs did not see the light. The sleeve cut sat like a shot in the Kremlin coming from a athlete from a satellite country like Poland and for happening at the most inopportune moment for the regime: 66 countries led by the United States had boycotted the Moscow Games after the USSR invaded Afghanistan in December 1979.
The Soviet authorities attempted to take the gold from Kozakiewicz without success thanks to the mediation of Juan Antonio Samaranch, recently elected president of the International Olympic Committee: “He always makes that gesture when he wins, especially when he breaks the world record.” However, his problems did not end there.
Despite the fact that ‘Koza’ made the comb as “a spontaneous reaction to the hostility of the stands”, as saying “you can whistle what you want, I am still the best”, the cut of sleeves transcended to the social in Poland. It was interpreted as a rejection of the communist regime, a symbol of rebellion. People stopped the jumper in the street to hug him, they did not believe his explanation outside of politics. “Yes, yes, you have to say that, but we know what it really meant,” they blurted out.
Al Polish government he was not amused that Kozakiewicz had become a revolutionary icon, even without wanting to, and made life impossible. They could not sanction him for the comb, but they were looking for any excuse to prevent him from competing. He failed to defend his Olympic gold in Los Angeles 1984 and, fed up with communism, defected in 1985 to live in Hannover, in West Germany. He even took advantage of the fact that his wife’s grandparents were German to nationalize and beat with a record 5.70 a record that would last until 1994. Unfortunately for him, the Polish Federation kept the right to allow him to compete as a Teutonic internationally, so he could not participate in the Games from Seoul 1988 and retired a year later.
In Poland, Kozakiewicz’s cut of sleeves further spurred the anti-communist labor movement. Two months after gold in Moscow the Solidarity union, led by Lech Walesa and supported by the Church and Pope John Paul II. Non-violent opposition to the government grew throughout the decade, Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and was elected President of Poland in 1990. A year earlier, Solidaridad had formed the first Polish non-communist government since 1948. A full-blown comb to the Soviet Union.
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