“Poland Club” (Klub Polska) – new strategy for Olympic preparations
Like the new Sports Act, “Poland Club” is a major step designed to change Polish sport.
- The new project of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism aims at channelling public funds into the training of the most outstanding and talented athletes – said minister Adam Giersz. – Until recently, we had been financing so called Olympic preparation programmes. In its initial phase, such a programme would cover almost a thousand athletes and would subsequently be narrowed down to a group of 200 people comprising the national Olympic team. With the new approach, we select the elite of Polish sports at an earlier stage, ensuring that they prepare for the Olympics in the best possible conditions. However, we also want to make sure that we have a say on how the individual preparation projects are managed.
Since the Barcelona Olympics, there was a downward trend in the number of medals won by Polish athletes. The trend was stopped in 2008 in Beijing and now, in 2010, the Ministry of Sport and Tourism is launching a new project called ‘Poland Club’ that will change Olympic preparation methods with a view to reversing this trend.
Olympics sports are a priority for the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. As much as 90% of the funds granted by the Ministry to sports associations are funds for the support of Olympic sports. Until now, the funding system was based on historical budget data, i.e. each sports association would receive the same amount as in the previous year, increased by the inflation rate.
The new approach changes the rules regarding the funding of top athletes. Funds are to be spent more effectively and allocated in a way that makes the best of our medal-winning potential and that ensures that money goes to those athletes who represent greatest medal opportunities. This system was already tested in the run-up to the Vancouver Olympics, when Poland’s best winter athletes, Justyna Kowalczyk, Adam Małysz and Tomasz Sikora were funded using the new concept.
Individual training programmes for the London 2010 Olympics have been offered to those athletes who won Olympic medals in Beijing, as well as to medallists of last year’s world championships. At present the group includes 32 sportsmen and women, representing 8 sports and 18 events. The programme is open in the sense that the line-up of the group my change depending on the results achieved by the athletes and on how the tasks planned for the various stages of the preparations are implemented.
The project will not necessarily be limited to a narrow group of 32 athletes. On the contrary, it is open to the participation of other talented athletes who will be offered individual training opportunities. The Ministry’s intention is that sportsmen and women with outstanding talent and potential for winning Olympic medals prepare in the best possible conditions.
The practical implementation of the programme is coordinated by the Scientific and Methodological Support Team headed by Sebastian Chmara. There is also a five-member methodology group headed by Paweł Słomiński. The medical coordinator is Jarosław Krzywański of the National Centre for Sports Medicine, and the scientific coordinator is Dariusz Sitkowski supported by a group of scientists from the Institute of Sports. The team also includes an IT expert.
Using project-oriented management, the team will monitor the implementation of the preparation plans, support the training process and collect programme implementation data. The team will not only monitor the members of “Poland Club”, but also pre-select athletes for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics. The team employs methodologists, practitioners, physicians and sports diagnosticians who use their extensive knowledge and a specially designed statistical research programme to assess athletes’ eligibility for membership in the exclusive “Poland Club”.
| List of sportsmen and women covered by the “Poland Club” programme as of May 19th, 2010 | ||||
| Name and surname | Sport | Event | Head coach | Allocation of funds |
| Aneta Konieczna Beata Mikołajczyk | Flatwater canoeing | K-2 500m | Dariusz Bresiński Wiesław Rakowski | 500 000 500 000 |
| Maja Włoszczowska | Cycling | MTB – Cross | Andrzej Piątek | 620 000 |
| Tomasz Majewski Piotr Małachowski Anita Włodarczyk Anna Rogowska Monika Pyrek Szymon Ziółkowski Kamila Chudzik Sylwester Bednarek | Track and field | shot put discus throw hammer throw pole vault pole vault hammer throw heptathlon high jump | Henryk Olszewski Witold Suski Krzysztof Kaliszewski Jacek Torliński Wiaczesław Kaliniczenko Krzysztof Kaliszewski Sławomir Nowak Lech Krakowiak | 4 024 050 |
| Paweł Korzeniowski | Swimming | 200m butterfly | Robert Białecki | 500 000 |
| Szymon Kołecki Marcin Dołęga | Weightlifting | 94 kg category 105 kg category | Ivan Grikurovi Mirosław Choroś | 500 000 500 000 |
| Danuta Dmowska Magdalena Piekarska Ewa Nelip Małgorzata Bereza | Fencing | team epee | Mariusz Kosman | 1 400 000 |
| Mchał Jeliński Marek Kolbowicz Adam Korol Konrad Wasielewski | Rowing | quad scull | Aleksander Wojciechowski | 5 200 000 |
| Miłosz Bernatajtys Łukasz Pawłowski Paweł Rańda Bartłomiej Pawełczak Łukasz Siemion | lightweight coxless four sweep substituted for Pawełczak at World Championships | Aleksander Wojciechowski | ||
| Juli Michalska Magdalena Fularczyk | double scull | Marcin Witkowski | ||
| Magdalena Kemnitz Agnieszka Renc | lightweight double scull | Przemysław Abrahamczyk | ||
| Agnieszka Wieszczek | Wrestling | 72 kg category | Jan Godlewski | 340 000 |
| 32 athletes | 8 sports | 18 events | 20 coaches | 14 084 050 |