Richard Nizielski

Olympic medal record
Men's Short track speed skating
Representing  Australia
	1994 Lillehammer	5000 m relay

Richard Nizielski (born 27 July 1968) is an Australian short track speed skater who competed in the 1992 Winter Olympics, in the 1994 Winter Olympics, and in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

He was born in Nottingham, Great Britain. He immigrated to Australia with his father Jerzy and mother Anne. They sailed on the Australis and arrived on 23 June 1971, in Perth. They settled in the suburb of Maylands, Western Australia.

In 1991, Nizielski was part of the Australian quartet that won the 5,000 m relay at the World Championships in 1991 in Sydney. It was the first time that Australia had won a World Championship in a winter sport.

Australia's short track relay team went into the 1992 Olympics as world champions, but the team crashed in the semi-finals. The Australians were in third place when Nizielski lost his footing; they finished fourth and failed to reach the final. Nizielski competed in the individual 1,000 m event, but was eliminated in the first round, placing 21st out of 27 competitors.

In 1994, Nizielski was part of the short track relay team won Australia's first Winter Olympic medal, a bronze. They scraped into the four-team final after edging out Japan and New Zealand to finish second in their semi-final. They adopted a plan of staying on their feet as first priority, and remaining undisqualified and beating at least one of the other three finalists. During the race, the Canadians fell and lost significant time, meaning that Australia would win their first medal if they raced conservatively and avoided a crash. Late in the race, Nizielski was fighting with his American counterpart for track position for the silver medal, but took the safe option and yielded, mindful of the lost opportunity following the crash in Albertville. Nizielski recollected "At the last change [American] Eric Flaim got a good push-away and he stepped underneath my feet and stopped me. I thought, well I'm not going to fight him for this. I didn't want to let the team down. And I was very aware that I had taken a fall in Albertville. I just wanted to get through and get the medal." Thus Steven Bradbury, Nizielski, Andrew Murtha and Kieran Hansen became Australia's first Winter Olympics medallists.

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