Academic Sports Association

Academic Sports Association (Polish: Akademicki Związek Sportowy, AZS) is a mass students’ sport organization, one of the biggest sports associations in Poland. Its main objectives are development of physical education, promotion of healthy lifestyle and physical activities among Polish youth.

Currently, AZS has around 50 000 members, students of around 200 colleges across Poland. Students, associated with the organization, can practice various kinds of sports as amateurs and as professionals. AZS sportspersons make up around 25% of members of Polish national teams, they are represented in all major sports events across the world, including the Olympic Games.

Akademicki Zwiàzek Sportowy was founded on May 15, 1909, during a meeting of students, which took place in Collegium Novum of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. A student of medicine of the Jagiellonian University, Waclaw Majewski, became first director of the association.

In the Second Polish Republic, AZS quickly developed into a mass organization, present in all Polish major urban areas. Number of its branches grew, and by 1939, there were seven of them:

In the 1930s, the AZS had around 3 000 members, may of whom were renowned on the international stage. Among most famous AZS's sportspersons of the interbellum period, there were Halina Konopacka, Roger Verey, Jerzy Ustupski, Wladyslaw Segda and Adam Papee. Most popular sports, practiced by members of the organization, were tourism, rowing, track and field, tennis, fencing and skiing. Quick growth of the organization made it necessary to create central office of the AZS, which would coordinate activities of all local branches. It was created on March 18–19, 1923 in Warsaw, during a meeting of all representatives. First director of the central office was Stefan Grodzki.

As soon as the war was over, AZS recreated its activities, and its main office was moved to Kraków. New branches were opened in all academic centers of Poland. In 1945, AZS became active in colleges and universities in Katowice, Łódź, Gliwice, Wrocław and . Next branches were opened almost every year:

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