OLIMPIC Student Sports Club

Wojciech Kalbarczyk, a lifeguard and swimming instructor, founded the OLIMPIC Student Sports Club (Uczniowski Klub Sportowy OLIMPIC), which currently has 50 members, in 2006. Parents of children who graduated swimming schools and wanted to work on their technique in a professional manner became the club’s founding members. Piotr Witan was appointed the first Chairman of the Board and has held the office since. The Club has been mostly designed to accommodate students from Warka and its environs, but it has also accepted youth from Grójec and Garwolin. The Club’s training staff, which consists of former professional swimmers, is a true asset. Initially, the training staff included Wojciech Kalbarczyk and Marcin Banach, and later added Łukasz Szymaniak, and club members Grzegorz Gabler, Daniel Witan, who now works with the youngest competitors, and Karol Śmietanka, working with older students.

The Club cooperates with the head of Warka Sports and Recreation Center Marian Górski, which allows Club members to train five times a week. This, in turn, enables our young competitors to develop their skills and improve performance. Our members have participated in the most prestigious swimming competitions: Grand Prix of Poland–Polish Cup (Grand Prix Puchar Polski), Polish championships, and international swimming competitions and brought home the President’s Cup of the Polish Olympic Committee at a 2011 swimming team competition in Piaseczno. In 2014, Aneta Chmielewska won the Grand Prix of Poland–Polish Cup, held in Kozienice. Karolina Chojecka was third and Natalia Kościanek–fourth. In March 2014, Aneta Chmielewska won the bronze medal at the Polish Championships among the 14-year-olds in the 100 meter classic category, which gave her a place on the Junior National Team.

During the Grand Prix of Poland–Polish Cup in 2015, Karolina Chojecka was second, Natalia Kościanek third, Aneta Chmielewska fifth, and among competitors born in 2001, Aleksandra Cieplak was in sixth place. In March 2015, at the Polish Championships for 14-year-olds, Aleksandra Cieplak made it twice to the A finals in the 100 and 200 meter butterfly categories and was eighth and sixth respectively. At the same time, at the Polish Championships for 15-year-olds, Aneta Chmielewska, Natalia Kościanek, and Karolina Chojecka were twice in the A finals and six times in the B finals.

In July 2015, at the Summer Polish Championships for 14-year-olds, Aleksandra Cieplak was three times in the A finals in the 50, 100, and 200 meter butterfly categories and during the finals was fifth and twice sixth. The victory gave her a place on the Junior National Team.

Girls born in 2000 and 2001 won our last trophy. It is the President’s Cup of the Polish Swimming Federation (Polski Związek Pływacki) for second place in the general classification of the Warsaw and Mazovian District Swimming Federation Grand Prix (Grand Prix Warszawsko-Mazowieckiego Okręgowego Związku Pływackiego).

In the years leading up to these events, our Club produced another great swimmer and now trainer Daniel Witan, who now cooperates with the University Sports Association & University of Physical Education sports club (AZS-AWF sports club). Witan was always in the top ten during subsequent Grand Prix of Poland–Polish Cups, and the Polish Championships for 15 through 18-year-olds.

It is also worth noting that a new generation of great swimmers is already making headlines: students born from 2004 through 2007 already participate in the “From Youngster to Olympian” (Od Młodzika do Olimpijczyka) competition, organized by the Polish Swimming Federation.

by President Piotr Witan