Tomorrow it will be already 25 years ago Polish rider Joachim Halupczok died on the way to the hospital, after he collapsed during a warm-up for an indoor football match. The autopsy has shown that he has NOT died of a heart attack. He left wife and two children. There’s a statue of Halupczok in Niwki, Opole County, his birthplace (foto Adas17 via Wikipedia).

Joachim Halupczok won the silver medal in the team time trial at the 1988 Summer Olympics along with Andrzej Sypytkowski, Marek Leśniewski and Zenon Jaskuła. In 1989 he became the amateur champion at the 1989 UCI Road World Championships. In 1990 he signed professional terms and took part in the World Championships in Utsunomiya. He was later diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia, which meant that he had to quit professional cycling. It was suspected that the cause of his health problems was the use of EPO. Professor Romuald Lewicki from Zakład Medycyny Sportowej WAM in Lodz (Institute of Sports Medicine), however, claims that Halupczok’s cardiac arrhythmia was genetic because his father and son suffer from the same condition. (Wikipedia)