Victory follows tragedy for Olympic champion

BUDAPEST, Aug 6 (Reuters) Olympic gold medallist Otylia Jedrzejczak has found the spirit and inner resolve to become a champion again after personal tragedy engulfed her life.

Less than a year after her brother was killed in a road accident in which she was driving the car, Jedrzejczak has returned to competition a tougher champion than ever.

The 22-year-old Pole drew on her strength and self-belief to overhaul French and German favourites Laure Manaudou and Annika Liebs and record a remarkable victory in Saturday's 200 metres freestyle final.

She was back on the blocks straight after her victory ceremony to qualify for today's final of the 200 metres butterfly, in which she was overwhelming favourite as Olympic and world champion.

Jedrzejczak was charged with unintentionally causing the fatal accident in the central city of Plonsk last October, the Polish news agency PAP reported. The case has yet to come to court.

Local media said she drove her car into a tree after swerving to avoid a head-on collision while passing other cars.

GENEROUS SPIRIT A year earlier Jedrzejczak had demonstrated extraordinary generosity with a unique gesture in which she auctioned the Olympic gold medal she had won in Athens.

Reports said the auction raised 0,000 for a Polish oncology institute. She was already a heroine in her own country and Time magazine named her one of its ''European Heroes of 2004''.

''Every day I fight a lot to swim kilometres in the pool but at the same time children around the world fight to wake up every morning and feel better.'' Jedrzejczak, who said the late Pope John Paul II was the person she had admired most, told the international swimming federation FINA's magazine.

''The world is a small nutshell in which we try to fulfil our dreams. If I can bring help to enable others to look forward to the next day then I am satisfied.'' She had already realised swimming dreams beyond the reach of all but a rare few.

A European bronze medallist in 1999 at 15, she won her first European 200 butterfly title the following year, when she also reached her first Olympic final.

Two years on she set a world 200 butterfly record of two minutes 05.78 seconds at the 2002 European championships in Berlin. The following year she won her first world 200 butterfly title and repeated the 100 butterfly silver she had gained in 2001.

The growing versatility of the 1.87 metres tall swimmer was demonstrated at the Athens Olympics where the 200 butterfly gold was accompanied by silver medals in the 100 butterfly and 400 freestyle. She broke her own world record in retaining her world 200 butterfly crown in 2005.

Then came the accident but she resumed training in January and returned to the championship arena to achieve what was clearly an emotional victory in the 200 freestyle in Budapest.

REUTERS PM BD1808