Poland has a new great talent in ski jumping. An unimaginable feat for a 17-year-old

On January 21-28, 2023, in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, another European Youth Olympic Winter Festival took place. The event, held every two years, is open to players aged 14 to 18. The Polish national team brought 14 medals from the event (one gold, seven silver and six bronze). This allowed him to take 12th place in the medal classification. The star of our team turned out to be 17-year-old ski jumper Klemens Joniak, who made something historic.

Polish ski jumping has new hope. Will Klemens Joniak follow in the footsteps of Adam Małysz?

Joniak was the first Pole in history to win three silver medals during the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival. He won them in the individual, team and mixed competition. Thus, he also joined the group of Polish multimedia medalists of this event. In total, he has four silver medals of this event, because in 2022 he was on the podium in the Finnish Vuokatti – that competition was held a year later than planned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Previously, our jumpers could not boast of such successes. The greatest was achieved in 2011, when the composition of Krzysztof Biegun, Mateusz Kojzar, Aleksander Zniszczoł and Klemens Murańka reached for gold in Liberec.

Later, only sporadically, Poles managed to win medals at the Winter Olympic Festival of European Youth. In 2015, the bronze was won by Dawid Jarząbek, and in 2022, in the mentioned Vuokatti, the silver was won by Jan Habdas. The event itself can be considered prestigious. In the past, medals were won on it by Martin Koch, Domen Prevc, Anze Lanisek and Peter Prevc, i.e. jumpers from the top of the World Cup.

Who is Klemens Joniak? He has already scored points in the Continental Cup

But Joniak showed not only during this event that he has the makings of a good jumper. Already in 2021, when he was 16, he scored points for the standings of the summer Continental Cup. He has scored six points this season. The potential hidden in it was also shown during the autumn Polish championships on plastic mattings. At Średnia Krokiew, he took a high sixth place after the first series. Eventually he finished 10th.

Apart from Joniak, another Polish jumping talent is also developing – Wiktor Szozda. He also returned from the European Youth Winter Olympic Festival with three medals. He won two silvers in the team and mixed competitions, as well as a bronze individually.

Both Joniak and Szozda are part of the Polish national team for the junior world championships, which start in Whistler, Canada. The jumpers will compete on the Olympic hill HS104. The men’s team is complemented by Jan Habdas, Kacper Tomasiak and Marcin Wróbel.