The "Małysz in skirt" - the history of ladies' ski jumping in Poland
The men's ski jumping in Poland is very popular and this country can be proud of the rich history of this sport and amazing atlethes - for example Stanisław Marusarz, Adam Małysz or Kamil Stoch. But women's ski jumping is still seen as an interesting fact here.
Ladies tried ski jumping many years ago. In Norway, Austria, Germany and many other countries this discipline is very popular - it's proved by a huge amount of viewers on every competition and a lot of girls who want to join the world's top jumpers. But in Poland it is still a young, underdeveloped discipline and there are not many girls who would like to connect their lifes with this sport. In this situation there is a big fault of Polish ski jumping officials. Even if Polish team had at lest two girls who could compete in the international rivalry, they never let them to do it. Polish Ski Association (PZN) didn't want to invest in the ladies' jumping. Polish girls could only compete on the small hills during the Lotos Cup competitions, they were never allowed to jump on the bigger hills what slowed down their progres.
Only in 2010 PZN decided to create two training groups in which the girls could train. It was the first step to finally move the ladies' jumping in Poland a little bit forward. The question is why did this decision come that late. In this time Poland had two promising athletes - Joanna Gawron and Joanna Szwab. Due to financial problems and lack of support from the side of Polish Ski Association very talented Gawron decided to end her adventure with ski jumping. But the better times for this sport has come.
In the season 2013/2014 Polish Ski Association for the very first time in the history appointed the Ladies' National Team in the composition of two athletes - Joanna Szwab and Magdalena Pałasz. The ladies debuted in the World Cup during the mixed team competition in which they took part together with Kamil Stoch and Maciej Kot in Lillehammer. This was also the very first time when Polish team took part in the mixed team event. The Polish team took the last, 14th place, but the experience which the ladies' gained paid off in the next World Cup competitions. In February 2014 Magdalena Pałasz achieved her best result in the World Cup, by ranking 28th and gaining her first points. On 11th of October 2014 Polish ladies' fought for the first time for the National Champion title. In this competition took part 13 athletes and the first Polish Champion in Women's ski jumping became Magdalena Pałasz.
Now we are waiting for the first successes of Polish girls in the World Cup and we hope that the ladies' ski jumping will be more and more popular!
By Anna Sobol
