Maciej Kowalewicz on the specifics of sports shooting: “It’s best when I don’t remember anything”

Maciej Kowalewicz comes from Olsztyn, where he is a player of the local Gwardia. Although he is only 25 years old, the sports shooter has, among others, Polish champion title, Old Continent championship medals, and even world championship gold!

The Polish representative, specializing in rifle shooting, will remember 2024 in a special way because he made his debut at the Olympic Games. In an interview for “Wprost”, however, he talked not only about his impressions from the French capital. What is interesting is the specificity of the discipline itself, which has often given Poland a lot of joy.

Maciej Piasecki (“Wprost”): What does your Olympic debut look like from the perspective of time?

Maciej Kowalewicz (sports shooter, Olympic athlete at the 2024 Olympics): There is always dissatisfaction if there are no maximum results or if you won’t win a gold medal. An athlete strives to be the best he can and achieve results that lead to the most important successes.

However, I am satisfied because I did everything I could during the Olympic competition in Paris. And every day I started. Of course, the results could always be a little better, the places too, but it was my debut at the Olympics and overall it wasn’t easy. I was fighting with myself there, the Olympic challenge is really something completely different from other competitions.

But that’s behind me now, as are my next few competition appearances. I certainly functioned a bit differently after the Olympics, without so much stress.

Now, in the context of the Olympic Games, I am looking more towards what will happen in a few years, thinking about qualifying for Los Angeles.

These latest successes include medals at the Academic World Championships. One silver and three bronze discs.

Correct. The competition was interesting, we competed in far away New Delhi. Due to the nature of the event, the group of competitors was smaller than the Olympic one, even taking into account the student status (Kowalewicz is a student of the Gdańsk University of Technology, note: eMPe), which was required. However, the stakes were still solid, I admit, very high.

Personally, I achieved a personal best in rifle in three stances – 593 points. This result is only one point worse than the Polish record. So I’m definitely very happy with that. Especially after such a difficult season as it was. This was my last academic opportunity to take part in this event. In the next edition, I will no longer be part of the student group – in terms of age. Therefore, the satisfaction is even greater because at the end of this stage, I brought four discs to Poland.

What would a new personal record mean for the Olympic competition in Paris?

This is a sure way to reach the finals, in fact in every competition. A score of over 590 points is a very good result. Games, world and European championships. With such a result, I could be confident about the final.

We’re talking about your next performances, and when is it time to rest?

Right after the performance in Paris, I had another 300-meter shooting competition. This is a typical military competition, because I am a soldier of the Central Military Sports Team. For this reason alone, we take part in competitions and proudly represent the Polish Army in international competition.

But in fact, I put down my weapons after these Olympic-military challenges. It was an opportunity to rest, above all, her head. It is crucial in shooting. It’s not an easy piece of cake because of the mental side.

Well-rested, I could finish the year at the above-mentioned World Championships, and now we have started training for the next season and new challenges. The European Championships will take place at the turn of February and March 2025. We are in training, have a moment of rest over the holidays and get back to work. Although I will note that 2025 is less intense in terms of our starts. This is also the time to refine certain details that may be important in the context of subsequent, important launches.

I heard about your pre-race ritual, juggling. Nothing has changed?

No, it’s actually a permanent feature. Juggling concentrates me, but also calms me down before performances. Every competitor has an idea on how to prepare for the start. In addition, there is stabilization of breathing. For example, some people listen to music. While traveling around the world, I noticed that juggling is quite popular, or some form of throwing a ball. This additionally stimulates coordination, so important in our performances. You need to get to the optimal state to be ready at a given moment, in the best way possible.

In one of your interviews you mentioned that the best starts are those from which you don’t remember much. Why?

Indeed, I agree with my words once again (laughter).

I admit that it’s best if I don’t remember anything. This level of focus on the goal makes me almost automatic. It comes out of you, the next shots just happen. I shoot, I don’t think about anything else, I just focus on the next elements of the right positioning.

Then I come down, satisfied with the result and start to wonder how I actually did it. And it’s hard to remember it somehow. Additionally, we act on really strong emotions. Each player feels well whether he or she is aiming for a good result or not. We try not to control it on an ongoing basis, because it would throw us off balance, but usually these results are in the back of our minds.

There is an element of, let’s call it, “amnesia” and the question of oneself: How did I do it?

Looking at the history of Polish sport shooting, we have our own traditions at the games – a total of twelve Olympic medals. Is this new generation, of which you also represent, looking back at those, somewhat distant times of success?

As you rightly noticed, generational changes have occurred and we are now writing our new history, trying to break through both in Europe and around the world. I admit, in my opinion, we are at a very good stage in the development of sports shooting in Poland. First of all, there are a lot of us and the level in the country is high. We won six Olympic qualifications, which is certainly one of the best, if not the best, results in the history of Polish shooting. I’m talking about the rifle group. Maybe once upon a time, a long time ago, but then there was a completely different qualifications system.

We had two finals at the Paris Olympics. I think this can be classified as a big success. Most of us are young people and at the next Olympics we will have a chance to show something more. This experience from Paris can only pay off to the benefit of the Polish national team. And I will add that even younger people are coming after us and they also have really solid results.

It seems to me that the future of shooting looks positive. There have been a lot of medals from the world championships, European championships and finals achieved in recent years. It just shows how much potential we have. We certainly do not give up and we will do everything to show even better results at the next Olympic Games.

You perform in mixed doubles with Julia Piotrowska. Maciej Kowalewicz comes from Olsztyn, and the mentioned sports partner from Wrocław. Can this be done geographically well in terms of training logistics and good cooperation?

Indeed, it may look a bit strange from the side, Olsztyn here, Wrocław there. But I immediately explain that in the case of mixed doubles, we do not have to train strictly together. This is done in such a way that we stand next to each other and each of us has to fire 30 shots individually. Whoever I shoot with, it should be the same.

Of course, the relationship between Julia and me matters. We stand together, we are a team, and it’s better when you have someone you like next to you. However, we are so lucky that there is a good atmosphere in our team. Usually 90 percent of the time I shoot mixed with Julia. We are often at training camps, we work together, so it doesn’t really matter whether we come from two ends of Poland or from the same city.

Finally, as a curiosity, I will ask if there is a chance of introducing 300-meter shooting into the Olympic card? Because I’m talking to the 2023 world champion, and Pole Tomasz Bartnik was also runner-up. I see a lot of potential for discs!

No, unfortunately, that definitely won’t happen. First of all, because a 300-meter shooting facility must be a really large space. There are not many places around the world that are so adapted to this type of competition.

In addition, the rifle and, above all, the ammunition are much more expensive, and we fire the same number of shots as in Olympic competitions. Moreover, there are rumors that there are plans to include only 10-meter shooting at the Olympics. However, we as shooters do not want this. Should be maintained at 50, 10 and 25 meters for the pistol.

As for the 300-meter competition, it is included in the European, world and World Cup championships. In the case of the Olympic Games, however, there is no reason to delude yourself – a larger caliber and a much larger space closes this path. This is a typically non-Olympic competition.

So we can sum it up by saying that you are already golden in uniform.

There’s still a long way to go to gold, but I’m heading in the right direction. That’s how I would describe it.