The Winter Olympics of Polish Communities have a much shorter history than the summer ones. It goes back to 1986, when the first games were organised in Zakopane. The Polish community liked the idea and decided to organise the Olympics again in 1989 and 1992. For the first time the games were attended by our countrymen living in Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine.
The next Winter Olympics of Polish Communities were organised in 2000 with 220 Polish community sportsmen from different parts of the world coming to Szczyrk and Wisła. They decided to revive the idea of the Olympic Games and they gave them the name which is used today – the World Winter Olympics of Polish Communities. Since then the Winter Olympics have been organised every 2 years in sports venues and tracks in the south of Poland – in Szczyrk, Wisła, Cieszyn, Tychy, Jastrzębie, Bielsko-Biała and Zakopane.
This year, for the first time in history, the Winter Olympics of Polish Communities will be organised in Western Poland – in Jelenia Góra, Karpacz and Szklarska Poręba-Jakuszyce as well as the Czech town of Jablonec nad Nisou.
Sportsmen taking part in the 11th World Winter Olympics of Polish Communities will be competing in 10 disciplines: cross-country skiing, biathlon, alpine skiing, carving, snowboard, luge, short- track, ice hockey, all-round skating and Nordic walking.
Along with the Olympics of Polish Communities there will be Movi-cities Festival organised. It will include concerts, laser and firework shows, a multimedia performance and many other interesting events prepared by the towns organising the Olympics.
Everyone who comes to Szklarska Poręba-Jakuszyce between 28 February and 2 March 2014 can also run in the 38th Bieg Piastów, a cross-country skiing race.
The opening ceremony and daily reports from the Olympics will be broadcast on TVP Polonia. The 11th World Winter Olympics of Polish Communities will last until 2nd March 2014.
The media patrons include Link to Poland and Polonia Sport.
A detailed plan of the Olympics and all the accompanying events as well as the latest news is available on the Olympics’ website and on the Bieg Piastów website.
