Czeslaw Lang awarded “The Medal Commemorating 100 Years of Polish Independence”

A prestigious acknowledgement for the General Director of the Tour de Pologne.

Prizes, awards and honours are always important for those who receive them, but these distinctions become priceless when they represent official appreciation from a nation and its people. In 2018 Poland celebrated 100 years since it regained its national independence. This important anniversary should remind everyone, not just the Polish people, of the significance of freedom in all its forms. The Tour de Pologne, with all its associated initiatives, was an official part of the calendar of events that contributed to celebrating this centennial.

The “medal commemorating 100 years of Polish independence” is a project initiated by the Polish government to respectfully and gratefully reward those individuals who distinctly stand out their work in various public and social spheres, with special merit for service to the State and society at large. Science, medicine, arts, culture and even sport are all sectors that contributed to the recovery and reinforcement of the Republic of Poland and its national identity.

During a ceremony that took place in Warsaw, The President of the Republic, Andrzej Duda awarded Czeslaw Lang with this prestigious medal, in virtue of his remarkable sports achievements. Lang was recognized not only for the results he achieved as an athlete, which include the silver medal he won in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but also for the excellent job he has done with the organization of the Tour de Pologne, which is the most watched sports event of the year in Poland after the football championship. Furthermore, the Tour de Pologne has become the most important cycling race in all of Eastern Europe, the only one of its kind in this region that is part of the UCI World Tour calendar.

“I am really very honoured. In 2018 we marked the milestone of 90 years in the life of the Tour de Pologne, and it was an extraordinary edition. This award isn’t only for me, but is shared with everyone who has contributed to this fantastic success. There could have been no greater victory than Michal Kwiatkowski’s. Furthermore, we organized lots of events tied in with the race, including curating the first mobile museum, which for many months carried the history of the Tour de Pologne and cycling culture throughout Poland, giving people the chance to discover the importance of the bicycle and to get to know how cycling has evolved in the last century. This medal testifies as to how sport, and particularly cycling, which is my life, had always held and still holds an essential role in society,” explained Czeslaw Lang, the first Polish rider to race at the highest professional level in the west, beyond the iron curtain, between 1982 and 1989, side by side with other great champions in world cycling.