Poland’s number one sport is soccer (piłka nożna), even though the boys in red and white continually fail to match the performance of the Polish national team (Polska drużyna narodowa) in the 1970s and 1980s.  The supporters in Poland hope that the European Soccer Championship finals organized jointly with Ukraine in 2012, the first sporting event of such magnitude in the country, will provide a premise for long awaited victories in a grand tournament.

Apart from soccer, Poles get excited about volleyball (siatkówka), speedway (sport żużlowy) and ski jumping (skoki narciarskie).

The recent achievements of swimmers: Otylia Jędrzejczak, Paweł Korzeniowski and Mateusz Sawrymowicz, tennis players: Agnieszka Radwańska and the tandem Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski have made these disciplines more popular with active people in Poland.

 

Volleyball

The greatest achievements in Polish volleyball, invariably linked with the name of the legendary coach Hubert Wagner, took place in 1970s, when Poland won the World Championships in Mexico in 1974 and two years later, the Olympic title in Montreal. The sportsmen from Wagner’s team travelled around the world where they successfully taught “the Polish school of volleyball”.

The beginning of the 21^st century brought about a renaissance of volleyball in Poland. This is proven not only by fully packed halls during league games, men’s World League games and women’s World Grand Prix, but primarily by the two European Champion titles for women – in 2003 and 2005, and the World Championship runner – up finish by the men’s team in 2006.

 

Ski jumping

The greatest achievement in Polish winter sports, not just ski jumping, is agreed to be the gold Olympic medal won by Wojciech Fortuna in Sapporo in 1972. The most recent history of Polish contests on snow and ice once again associated with a ski jumper – Adam Małysz. The contestant from Wisła has won multiple medals in World Championships and Olympics. He is also the only Polish man to date to have won the prestigious Four Hills Tournament. It was after the triumph in 2001 that “Małysz – mania” erupted in Poland (everyone was watching him, all the sportsmen wanted to be like him – so they followed what he ate, what he was doing), a period of the sportsman’s extraordinary popularity which lasted a number of years afterwards, fuelled by his successive victories.

The astonishing achievements of Adam Małysz have contributed (przyczyniły się) to increased popularity of other winter sports: cross-country skiing, biathlon and alpine skiing. It is hard to compare few successes in these sports with the amazing series of wins by the ski jumper from Wisła, but help to retain hope that during Winter Olympics in 2018 that Zakopane aspires for hosting, Poles will delight visitors from all the world not only with their legendary hospitality.

 

Soccer

The league games in recent decades have been dominated by Wisła Kraków and Legia Warszawa. Other well known clubs are Lech Poznań, Widzew and ŁKS from Łódź, Górnik Zabrze, Ruch Chorzów, Kolporter Korona Kielce and Cracovia Kraków. The days when the names of Polish soccer players, like Boniek, Lato or Deyna at the turn of the 1980s, were known to soccer supporters outside of Poland or Europe, have long passed.

The clubs of Ekstraklasa are not able to compete on an equal footing with their European counterparts and frequently drop out in the early stages of competition. Supporters are also put off the national competitions by outdated stadiums and corruption scandals. At the beginning of the 21^st century all soccer fans were able to take pride in the performance of the national team, which after a 16 year brake qualified for the World Cup finals and repeated this 4 years later. There are high hopes in Poland prior to European Cup Finals in 2012, an event that Poland had never qualified before 2007.

 

Water sports

Canoeing and rowing are disciplines in which Poles have been a world power for years. Polish rowing teams regularly win medals at the world championship competitions and Olympic games. The regatta course Malta in Poznań has played host to numerous international tournaments of championship status.

Also Poland’s sailors and windsurfers are even more succesful. No wonder more and more Poles go in for these disciplines, with the Masurian Lake District and Bays of Gdańsk and Puck as the main locations for realizing their passions.

 

Motor Sports

The roaring engines of fast machines inspire similar emotions around the world and Poland is no exception here. Poland specializes in motorcycle speedway – the national speedway extra class is considered the world’s second strongest league, after England’s. Polish speedway riders present a high standard and compete with the best. They regularly compete for (and frequently win) the world’s team champion title.

 

Of course there are more great Polish sportsmen and sportswomen, but I think I covered the most important topics. If I missed anything – please let me know in comments below.

 

Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)