Poland's first Winter Olympic champion found a second home in America

One jump can change a life. In Polish sport, nobody proves it better than ski jumper Wojciech Fortuna, who gave the country its first-ever Winter Olympic gold. What came after is a much less shiny story.

What happened in Sapporo?

Before Fortuna, Poland had just three Winter Olympic medals. There was one silver, won by speed skater Elwira Seroczyńska in 1960, and two bronzes: speed skater Helena Pilejczyk in 1960 and Franciszek Gąsienica-Groń in Nordic combined in 1956.

Fortuna was not a favourite at the Sapporo Games. He had no big international results behind him. On the K-86 hill he finished sixth, which was already a very good result.

Five days later, on the K-110 hill, he flew 111 metres in the first round. His second jump was weak, just 87.5 metres. Still, he won, finishing only 0.1 points ahead of Switzerland's Walter Steiner.

Why did he leave Poland?

Life as an Olympic champion in communist-era Poland (the PRL) was not glamorous. Fortuna never repeated that success. He says he was offered a coach's job for just 800 zloty, so he became a taxi driver, which also paid poorly. The situation hit his mental health, and he turned to alcohol.

In 1986 he found the strength for a fresh start. He left Zakopano for the USA, took simple jobs such as cleaning, and managed well. He came back to Poland in 1989, but only briefly.

In the 1990s he returned to the States and founded a company, Fortuna Service Inc. "I had a painting company, I employed six painters. I got a loan for a house worth 350,000 dollars," he later wrote in his books. He also married a woman from Suwałki, a city in north-eastern Poland.

And where is he now?

Since 2005 Fortuna has lived in Poland again, in Gorczyca, his wife's family land less than 40 km from Suwałki. He still calls America his second homeland.

In a February 2025 interview he said that without America he would probably be sitting near Gubałówka, a hill above Zakopane, waiting for someone to buy him a beer. His ambition from sport, he added, kept him from that fate.