Sports in Poland

Poland's sports include almost all sporting disciplines, in particular: volleyball, football (the most popular sport) and motorcycle speedway, ski jumping, track & field, basketball, boxing, fencing, rugby union, field hockey, handball, ice hockey, swimming and weightlifting. The first Polish Formula One driver, Robert Kubica, has brought awareness of Formula One Racing to Poland. Volleyball is one of country's most popular sports with a rich history of international competition. Poland has made a distinctive mark in motorcycle speedway racing thanks to Tomasz Gollob, Jaroslaw Hampel and Rune Holta. Speedway is very popular in Poland, and the Polish Extraleague has the highest average attendances for any sport in Poland. The Polish mountains are an ideal venue for hiking, skiing and mountain biking and attract millions of tourists every year from all over the world. Cross country skiing and ski jumping are popular TV sports, gathering 4–5 million viewers each competition, with Justyna Kowalczyk and as the main attractions. Baltic beaches and resorts are popular locations for fishing, canoeing, kayaking and a broad-range of other water-themed sports.

One of Poland's national sports throughout the centuries was Equestrianism. In the interwar period Adam Królikiewicz won the first individual Olympic medal for Poland - bronze medal in the individual jumping competition in the 1924 Summer Olympics. He died after an accident during filming of the Battle of Somosierra charge in Andrzej Wajda's film Popioły. Tadeusz Komorowski took part in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris and Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal" in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. General Władysław Anders participated also in jumping competitions. Polish eventing team won two Summer Olympics medals before the WWII, its member Zdzisław Kawecki was murdered in Katyń massacre.

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Wikipedia