Born in 1981 in Poland, Anna Stanieczek, comes from Goleszow – a small town located between Ustroń and Cieszyn. She graduated from the Academy of Physical Education in Cracow. She is a PE teacher, an alpine skiing coach, an instructor of archery, snowboarding, gymnastics and football. For five years she has been living in Oslo, Norway.
She has won medals and honours in various sport fields:
6th place in seniors’ Polish alpine skiing (downhill) Championship – 1998, Szczyrk;
Polish Academic Team Championship in snowboarding – 2004
Runner-up in Norway rugby sevens – July, 2011.
In the field of archery she has won:
Bronze medal as an individual as well as a team – Polish archery Championship in the junior category in 1999, Cracow;
Norwegian Championship in hall – April, 2013
Norwegian Championship in outdoor ski slopes – August, 2013
Polish Team Championship in outdoor ski slopes – August, 2013
In 2013, besides previously mentioned Norwegian Championship in hall and in outdoor ski slopes in archery competition in the category of classic archery, she also won the king’s cup. Since the year 1879 Hans Majestet Kongens Pokal has been one of the most prestigious awards granted for sport achievements in Norway. Since 1993 the King Herald V himself has been granting Kongepokal.
Anna, how has your adventure with archery begun?
It has started when my brother practised archery in our primary school and later in sports school. For good, however, all this has started when I was taken to the team “Ski Archery”, because I had been practising alpine skiing since I was twelve. They claimed, that if I am able to slide downhill, I can quickly learn how to run, and, by chance, how to shoot a bow.
Weren’t they wrong?
I was learning two things at the same time, ski-running and shooting a bow, skiing and archery. In winter season I held the position of skiing instructor every year. I started at the age of 18, because earlier, as I mentioned, I did alpine skiing. Nevertheless I really loved bows at heart. I have been doing this sport since I was eighteen.
You have told me, that once, at night you went with your brother and sister-in-law to hunt boars with bows, and you did not shoot anything, because you felt pity for them! I understand, that winning the Norwegian Championship was much easier for you?
…It was not easy, it was really tough to get it actually. All the way to the finals – that was really hard competition. I hardly won the last round, but as you know I managed to do that eventually.
How does it feel to win a king’s cup, knowing that it is such a huge success?
If you say so, I’m feeling really proud of myself.
And that is right, because you are a star, … a very modest one. I would like to ask you about your family traditions, since I know that you have ones, and that those influenced you in a very significant way.
My mum is really “sporty”, she practised biathlon and she was multiple champion of Poland. Her greatest achievement is the European Indoor Championship in 2010 in Poreč as well as the World Championship in the category of Masters in 2013. My younger brother, Zbigniew, is not only a Polish record-holder in shooting at 70 m but also a multiple champion of Poland.
Does it mean, that since you were a kid you have had something to do with sport?
I have started to ski before I learnt how to walk. Mum wanted me and my brother to practice something, and I always admired alpine skiing. My story with the skis have started then. My brother went to sports school and trained archery. He was quite good. After the studies I began work in school, where I took care of student’s sport club. Besides I joined the Kmit Zabierzów club (Grot Zabierzów at present). It was located in the same community, where my workplace was. It was easy to cooperate. Afterwards kids were transferred to the Grot, wherein they could develop themselves. Some of my pupils still train and get high positions in competitions.
What is the difference between indoor and outdoor shooting?
At the hall we shoot at 18 m to the target with the diameter of 20 cm, whereas during an outdoor a shooting target has the diameter of 122 cm and we shoot from the distance of 70 m (regardless weather conditions; unless there is a storm, and we have to wait it out)
To my knowledge, it appears that you are also the snowboard instructor, aren’t you?
I started doing snowboarding during my studies. I liked winter sports, and since I worked before as a skiing instructor, so I had friends, who taught me how to do a snowboarding. It went very quickly.
That does not surprise me, because in my eyes you are an absolute sporting all-rounder. As far as I know, in Norway you used to play rugby, right?
Rugby came about, when I moved to Norway and I realised that I missed something. Back in Cracow, I had a stable group of friends, and the one call was enough for us to gather together and play basketball, football or volleyball. One message and our team was ready. Here, however, I could not find a friend, because I knew just a few people. Today it is different. Nonetheless, I was going by bike once through Frogner Park in Oslo, towards your place anyway, and I noticed girls playing rugby. I asked them whether they have a team, and what I have to do to join it. They said that I can play with them. After the training I received several messages telling me that I should continue, which was particularly nice, because I did not know the language back then. Eventually they appointed me to the camp of the national rugby team, but back then I had been living in Norway for two and a half years and the rules are that you can be a part of the national team, if you have lived there for 3 years minimally.
You could represent Norwegian rugby at present, but you do not play it anymore, do you?
Indeed I do not. Sometimes they ask me on Facebook, if I manage to play with them but, unfortunately, I do the bows for real now.
Do you play football as well…?
I do, but only when someone needs to fill up their squad (laugh).
So when someone needs a good player, they call you?
Hahaha
You also play volleyball, right?
Yes, but I play just with friends. We enter some small competitions.
I have a feeling that it would be easier to list disciplines of sport you do not practise. Have I omitted something?
Squash. A friend, who used to be a rugby player persuaded me to do this sport, and this is cool. If I have someone to play it with, I do it from time to time.
Is there any sport you do not like?
I hate riding a bike and swimming.
I noticed, that in interviews with sportspeople, there is usually posed the question concerning their diet, so I am going to pose it too. What do you eat? What kind of diet makes you so successful?
Meat, I am fond of meat.
You have lived in Norway for 4, 5 years. How are you doing?
I am doing great, because I live in the capital city, and at the same time my place is 20 minutes away from the ski slope. I like it, that Norwegians enjoy being outside and that they love sport. I feel like I belong in here. And of course I have fallen in love in women’s handball. I am a big fan of the national team as well as the team from Larvik.
What do you do on a daily basis in Norway?
I work at the nursery school. At work I invented a project for three-year-old kids, whom I take care of. At my nursery school we use Re Mida materials – i.e. residues, which you can easily transform and use them creatively again. I got the old wheels from the bicycle service, I found boards in a nursery and I started with children a project basketball. The idea originated, when I showed to a three-year-old child how to dribble the ball, and when he started to dribble thirteen times using one hand, I concluded, that it is a shame to waste his talent. Therefore we designed baskets with children, we formed them and we began to play basketball.
So, besides being an active athlete, you are also an active propagator of sport among children and teenagers. At present you speak Norwegian very well, you do not complain about lack of friends and your phone is ringing off the hook during our conversation. What do you do in your free time, for example when the weather is beautiful and you have all day only for yourself?
I try not to sleep till 12. If the weather is beautiful, I shoot a bow, according as the preparatory period. Then I visit my friends or they visit me. We drink coffee and we watch movies.
Is doing all these sports, you practise, and you have been telling about, your passion, a hobby or perhaps a profession?
It is my hobby.
How does it relate to the great success you have achieved? I associate a hobby with something private and amateur, rather than with medals and a king’s cup.
You have been achieving success by doing your hobby.
Thank you for the interview.
Thanks to Editing Team of nPortal.no for sharing with us this interview.
The interview was compiled by Marta Tomczyk-Maryon /nPortal.no
Photo © nPortal.no
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