Andrzej Badeński

Badenski was born in Warsaw and represented the club Legia Warszawa.[1] At the 1962 European Championships he finished sixth in the 400 metres.[2] He did however win few international accolades before winning the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 1964 Olympic Games. At the same Olympics he finished sixth in the 4×400 metres relay together with the Polish team.[1] At the 1966 European Championships he won a silver medal in the 400 metres, only behind Stanislaw Gredzinski, and won the 4×400 metres relay together with Jan Werner, Edmund Borowski and Stanislaw Gredzinski.[3][4]

After this, his greatest success would come in the regional indoor championships. At the 1967 European Indoor Games he competed in the relay final, but the team did not finish,[5] and at the 1968 European Indoor Games he won a gold medal in the relay.[6] He also won the individual distance at the 1968 European Indoor Games,[7] and two relay gold medals at the 1969 European Indoor Games.[8][9]

His second Olympic Games were in 1968. He finished seventh in the 400 metres.[1] In the 4×400 metres relay he finished fourth together with Stanislaw Gredzinski, Jan Balachowski and Jan Werner.[10] With the same team members he finished fourth in the relay at the 1969 European Championships.[11] In the individual distance he finished sixth.[12] At the 1970 European Indoor Championships he won two silver medals; in the individual distance[7] as well as in relay.[13] At the 1971 European Indoor Championships he won gold medals in both these events, the latter together with Waldemar Korycki, Jan Werner and Jan Balachowski.[7][14] With the same team members he won a silver medal in the relay at the 1971 European Championships[15] and a gold medal at the 1972 European Indoor Championships.[16] At the 1972 Olympic Games he reached the semi-final in the 400 metres and finished fifth in the relay.[1]

He became Polish 400 metres champion in 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967,[17] and in 1971 he became American indoor champion in the 600 yards event.[18] His personal best time in the 400 metres was 45.42 seconds, achieved in 1968.[1] At the end of his career in 1974 he defected to the West and lived in Germany until his death. He died near Wiesbaden in September 2008.[1]