Rafał Sonik in the Sports Walk of Fame

Rafał Sonik is the fourth representative of motorsports who has joined 112 legends of Polish sport in the famous Walk of Fame in Cetniewo. During the official ceremony held on Saturday, the quad rider unveiled his star, adjacent to those commemorating Bohdan Tomaszewski and Sebastian Kawa, a ten-time world champion in gliding.

Six new stars were unveiled during the ceremony to commemorate: Karol Bielecki, a two-time world champion runner-up in handball, Wojciech Fortuna, an Olympic gold medallist and world champion in ski jumping, already mentioned Sebastian Kawa, the world’s best glider, Rafał Sonik, and posthumously – Bronisław Czech, a pioneer of Polish skiing, and Bohdan Tomaszewski – a legendary figure in Polish sports journalism.

In pouring rain which surprised the participants of the ceremony in Cetniewo, each sportsman came out on the stage to present himself to the audience, listen to the laudation and say a few words. The achievements of Rafał Sonik were summarized by Andrzej Witkowski, President of the Polish Automobile and Motorcycle Association. In his speech, the winner of the Dakar Rally focused mainly on the power he gets from his supporters.

– Life writes the most unlikely scenarios and I did not think (when I and my friends started our adventure with quads) that this passion would lead me to this moment. This is an enormous honor and I do not know whether I have deserved it. I hope that when you think about a sportsman who takes a challenge to compete with others somewhere at the end of the world, you believe that he has courage that we all have. We, who recovered after the Second World War and suppressed the worst system ever, I mean communism, starting thus a tremendous change. I feel that I have been honored a little bit in advance but I hope that I will manage to fully earn the honor that has been bestowed on me – said the four-time World Cup winner.

After the ceremony, Rafał Sonik did not disappoint his supporters and thanked them, signing autographs for almost one hour. He did that in a break between two rain fronts which crossed over the Polish coast. Shortly after the ceremony, the Walk of Fame was flooded with rain again.