A Polish woman from Belarus defended the honor of the national team. This is a unique story!

We would like to remind you that the runner -up in the high jump in March 2024 received Polish citizenship at the hands of the then President of Poland Andrzej Duda. It is worth adding that the grandparents of the athlete were Poles.

Maria Żodzik, runner -up in the world! The first medal in the Polish career

Maria Żodzik has been living in Poland since 2022. More precisely in Bialystok, where-as the late Maciej Petruczenko rightly mentioned in his text from June 2024-she became the natural successor of Kamila Stepaniuk-Limilwińko. That is, record holders of the Polish and indoor world champion (2014).

Interestingly, in 2021, the fruition reached for the runner -up of Belarus during the competition in the competition in Minsk.

– I am very happy that the president signed all documents and granted me Polish citizenship. I am proud that I will be able to represent Poland, a country of my ancestors. I hope that matters related to the World Athletics procedures will now be efficient and I will soon start in a jersey with an eagle on my chest. I hope that everything will go smoothly and the fans will see me at the Paris Games in the white and red outfit of the Polish national team-admitted a Żodzik after receiving Polish citizenship, cited on the PKOl website.

In fact, at the Paris Games, the Żodzik started, although the Olympic performance would rather like to go into oblivion. Although a Polish woman born in Belarus rode with the best result of 196 cm, she managed to pass only 183 cm at the most important four years, without giving herself a much chance for any success.

It was different during the World Cup in Tokyo. The conditions were very difficult, but despite the rain falling, the glow jumped 200 cm, thus beating its life record and establishing a second result in Polish historical tables.

This gave a 28 -year -old representative of Poland the first medal from an international event in his career in his … first start in the exact final. This is the second medal for Poland in high jump in the history of the World Cup in the open stadium. In 2017, Kamila, then Lićwińko won the brown album.

World Cup 2025: Polish national team with one medal brought from Tokyo

How to assess the athletics world championships performed by Polish and Poles? It seems that the competition at this highest level was very strong. An interesting list was prepared by the author of a well -known and respected account on the X portal, i.e. Athletic News. Ten Polish representatives or representatives appeared in the top ten of the best athletes or athletes.

Natalia Bukowiecka was closest to the medal. The runner specializing in competition at 400 meters was fourth twice (individually and in the 4×400 m relay) and once the fifth (4×400 m relay) in Tokyo. Pia Skrzyszowska (100 m through Płotki) and Katarzyna Zdziebło (walking at 35 km) also took fifth places. In addition, the sixth place of the thresher Anita Włodarczyk, an Olympic multimediaist, who once again gave a signal that he was still taking place near the top. Although, as in the case of the thresher Paweł Fajdek (seventh in Tokyo), this is not the level of the struggle for these most important medal positions.

Looking at the achievements of the Polish team’s discs, for the last time with one medal from the athletics of the World Championships, Poland returned in 2003. At that time, however, it was Robert Korzeniowski’s gold in a 50 km walk.

However, at the previous World Championship party, in 2023, Poland reached for two medals – both silver. Wojciech Nowicki (hammer projection) and Natalia Bukowiecka (then Kaczmarek) won the runner -up in the world on 400 meters.