In the plebiscite on Best Sportsman ‘25 she defeated Christmas and Lewandowski! My triumph was symbolic. It gave religion to players from alleged niche disciplines that they could popularize the beloved athletics – says St. general expert. Claudia Zwolińska, Olympic runner-up and double planet champion in mountain canoeing. “The Armed Poland” tells about its idols and plans.
Sport Masters Gala on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the plebiscite of the athletics Review, 2026.
In the plebiscite on the Best Sportsman of Poland 2025, which was decided a fewer weeks ago, organizers kept everyone in suspense until the last minute. Were you calm about the score?
Claudia Zwolińska: I had quite a few different scenarios in my head. I even thought I'd be out of ten... that I put so much work into promoting kayaking and winning medals, and it's not... I know what the conflict to popularize discipline looks like and how hard it is to break through. I realize that there are disciplines in Poland that are much more popular and I knew my place in line. That's why I wasn't aiming for the win, I was dreaming of a place in the top three. erstwhile the 3rd place was announced, and then the second place, I felt black despair... It didn't work, I thought.
Meanwhile, you've been declared victorious!
It was a immense surprise to me. It feels amazing! I'm very emotional all day. Sometimes I cry in movies, and I feel a teardrop in my eye erstwhile I hear any very touching music, but erstwhile it comes to controlling emotions in these stressful situations, I'm doing well. I'm an athlete, it's my job, and I seldom get emotional in situations like this. And then I got truly emotional due to the fact that it was symbolic triumph that gives faith In that even erstwhile you train discipline like mine, you can win in the popularity contest. There was specified a belief between us athletes that only athletes from the front pages of newspapers have a chance to win. Yet something amazing happened, even in the century of this plebiscite!
Your advantage in the number of votes won was enormous.
It was only a fewer days after the event that I learned about the large advantage in the points, from the information on the plebiscite website. This number of votes cast on me was amazing and I am glad that much of the time I spent promoting kayaking did not go in vain and brought historical results for my discipline. I'm arrogant of that. quite a few people enjoyed my victory.
And how would you encourage those young people who admire the Zvolinska Claudia to do mountain kayaking? What's different about this discipline?
I always encourage children and young people, but besides adults, to exercise, not only canoeing. I believe that athletics has a immense educational function, teaches systematicity, coping with difficulties, working with others and shaping character. Therefore, the more sports in young people's lives, the better. And erstwhile it comes to my discipline, or slalom canoeing, there's something truly peculiar about it. It's a athletics where you work with the element. Nothing is always the same, all river, track, wave and all water strategy are different. all time you read this water, learn it and respond to what is happening. Additionally, you can travel around the planet and swim in many beautiful places. There's besides a small adrenaline that makes this athletics never dull.
During the plebiscite gala, you peculiarly thanked the Central Military Sports Team...
Yes, it was crucial to me that I joined the CGM and so I left these words of gratitude at the very end of my thanks. I know it's always the strongest. I'm grateful to the military for their support, and I've come across fantastic people here. And that's before I won the Olympic medal erstwhile I didn't truly have any individual sponsors. Apart from the Polish Canoe Union, I had no support at all. Meanwhile, erstwhile I joined the CGM, I joined people who simply believe in success. It gives you large strength. Whether I lost or won, I always had the support of my fellow soldiers, but besides my superiors. And that gave me wings. At the Gala in the Teatr Wielki there was besides the head of the CGM, Colonel Mariusz Denkewicz. I appreciate that very much, due to the fact that it's a individual who believed in me very much from the beginning and always built a affirmative attitude in me. And not only in sports, but besides in military promotion.
Claudia Zwolińska celebrates on the podium after winning in slalom, the 2025 ICF planet Championship in Sydney.
It so happens that respective days after you joined the CGM at the 2023 planet Championships, you achieved life's success...
Yes, by winning a medal at the time, I secured my qualifications for the Olympic Games in Paris. I knew the next goal was to fight for the Olympic medal And I had support in the CGM, besides from my discipline coordinator Agnieszka Wieczek-Kordus, who had already won specified a medal in wrestling. I utilized the advice of a very experienced player who knows precisely what the preparation for the start of athletes from niche disciplines looks like. And I had to face the expectations of the full kayaking environment, which had been waiting for the Olympic medal for over 20 years. This medal was already dreamed of erstwhile I was a child. erstwhile I was going to the Olympics, I felt the weight of the full canoe community on my shoulders.
You donated your Olympic medal for the auction for the Polish Society for the Fight against Mukoviccysis. Is the auction able to give more attention to this severe illness?
Giving the Olympic medal to the auction always involves quite a few media interest and this way you can besides draw attention to an crucial problem. I hope that thanks to this auction, more people have heard about cystic fibrosis and the regular challenges faced by the sick and their families. I am glad that I was able to support the Polish Society for Combating Muccivistics in this way, both financially – thanks to the auction funds – and by making the issue public. I know that, in the face of specified a serious illness, any aid may seem small, but I believe that even tiny gestures substance and can bring real support together. It was besides a very crucial experience for me. I felt that this medal could mean more than just a individual accomplishment and that it could aid others. It gave me large satisfaction and sense of sense of what I do.
2025 planet Slalom Canoeing Championship in Sydney.
During the athletics Masters Gala, you spoke beautifully about your idol Justina Kowalczyk. Like the five-time winner of the plebiscite “PS” you come from Małopolska. At the start of your sports path, did you think about choosing e.g. ski runs?
Ever since I was a kid, I loved sports and had quite a few idols. My favourite sports were just winter sports. Idolami Adam Małysz and Justyna Kowalczyk. Justyna, too, due to the fact that she comes from a tiny village, is very busy and everything she has come to, did herself with the aid of a trainer and training staff. She didn't have a discount fare. In my discipline, which I yet chose, it is very similar. Just like Justyna, I gotta work hard for the success of the full discipline. We both come from the south of Poland, so possibly we just have a akin character, we have the element. But I'm not even trying to compare myself to Justin. Her results can't be traced back. And back to skiing, of course I was moving and running. We slalomists actually have quite a few sports, due to the fact that very many motor factors affect good slalom passes. We are rather efficient athletes, so in different disciplines we find ourselves, and 1 of our winter trainings is just skiing. erstwhile I was a kid, I competed in a cross-country race, and I did beautiful well. I won different medals, but I fell in love with the slalom and bet on it.
And you signed up in the past of your discipline as the first player to win 3 pucks individually at 1 championship.
When I returned from the planet Cup in Australia, I received a call from a writer from Poland who told me that the last specified success associated with winning 3 medals in the individual Olympic competition was in the Polish summertime athletics 70 years ago. Then I realized that he began comparing me to the large names of Polish sport. And then I thought it was time and success in the "Sports Review" plebiscite. That's why I spent months after the planet Cup to advance kayaking. I tried to make certain that as many people as possible knew about these 3 medals, and that would bring its consequence in the plebiscite. I didn't truly believe that in the non-Olympic year, you could do that. However, it turned out that with the aid of amazing people, with specified a mobilisation of full canoeing environments, the Nowo Sącz region and the Military Recruitment Center in Nowy Sącz, and many favorable people, they managed to win.
But the celebration of success did not last long. A fewer days after your triumph, you started a more than month-old group in Australia. Why right there?
I truly like to train there, and it's not just due to the fact that I won the planet Cup medal and the Paris Games pass. I have excellent training conditions in Australia. In Poland, it is impossible to train on the tracks. There, in January and February, the weather favors kayakers and I was able to concentrate on preparing for a fresh period that would most likely be qualifying for the next games.
