Leszek Blanik

Leszek Robert Blanik^[1] (born 1 March 1977 in Wodzisław Śląski) is a Polish gymnast, World and Olympic champion in vault. He was the first to perform a handspring double front vault in piked position which now has been named after him.^[2]

Leszek Blanik
Personal information
Full name	Leszek Robert Blanik
Born	(1977-03-01) 1 March 1977 (age 48) Wodzisław Śląski, Poland
Gymnastics career
Discipline	Men's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	Poland
Club	AZS-AWFiS Gdańsk
Head coach(es)	Andrey Levit
Assistant coach(es)	Piotr Mikolajek
Medal record Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Vault 2000 Sydney Vault World Championships 2007 Stuttgart Vault 2002 Debrecen Vault 2005 Melbourne Vault World Cup Final 2002 Stuttgart Vault European Championships 2008 Lausanne Vault 2004 Ljubljana Vault

Olympics

Blanik picked up a bronze in vault at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.^[3]

On 18 August 2008, he won the gold medal in men's vault at the Olympics in Beijing, becoming the first Polish Olympic champion in a gymnastics event.

World championships

Blanik won a gold medal in vault at the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, earning him an individual berth to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also has two World silver medals, from 2002 in Debrecen, and 2005 in Melbourne.

Awards

For his sport achievements, Blanik received:
Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (5th Class) in 2008.
Golden Cross of Merit in 2000.