We have a star of ski jumping. The young Pole won three medals

The European Youth Olympic Winter Festival is a true testing ground for young athletes. Young people up to the age of 18 compete in it. In the past, the later medalists of the Winter Olympic Games and the World Championships reached for the medals of this event.

In the history of this event, Poles won only one gold medal. In 2011, in Liberec, Biało-Czerwoni won the team competition. Our jumpers then competed in the composition of: Krzysztof Biegun, Mateusz Kojzar, Aleksander Zniszczoł and Klemens Murańka.

Individual medals were won by Dawid Jarząbek (bronze in 2015) and Jan Habdas (silver in 2022). However, no Polish jumper has ever won as many as three medals at one event.

This time, as many as two players did it, because apart from Klemens Joniak, also Wiktor Szozda. The latter finished the competition with two silver medals (team competition and mixed team competition) and one bronze (individual). Joniak also has a silver medal from the team competition in 2022, so a total of four silver medals.

Joniak began to show himself on the international arena in the summer of 2021. He was scoring points in the Summer Continental Cup at the time when he was 16 years old. In autumn, a player of LKS Poroniec Poronic shone in the Polish Championships on plastic mattings on Średnia Krokiew. After the first round he was sixth, but eventually finished the competition in tenth place.

In the history of this event, only Klemens Muranka, Maciej Kot and Grzegorz Mietus were younger than him in the lead of MP. The first two went on to win medals at the world championships. In December, 16-year-old Szozda also checked in at the MP in jumping in “10”.

This winter, Joniak scored Continental Cup points for the first time in a winter. Now he was one of the stars of the Polish national team at the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival, and he will soon play in the junior world championships in Whistler, where our team – for the first time in many years – has a chance to fight for a medal.

He started ski jumping – at the suggestion of a friend – at the beginning of primary school.

Apart from sports, the jumper from Olcza in Zakopane likes to sculpt and draw. He’s been doing it since he was a child. It’s a good break from jumping. He has been awarded many times for his sculptural works.

He inherited his artistic talents from his mother’s side of the family. Her sister is a teacher of art and sculpture at the Tatra Center of Culture and Sport “Jutrzenka”.