After the accident, Tajner was heartbroken, but she made it to the Olympics and Kowalczyk moved. “As if I won a medal”

We publish the refreshed version of the text from March 22, 2020.

he has a difficult but dreamy childhood behind him, growing up with sports and hard training in the background. Now I don’t want to stop – she has just made her debut at the Olympics. And this is how: it finished 16th in a combined 15 km race. And just two years ago she made her debut in the senior world championships. Then she won three medals for the Youth Youth in 2019 and the Youth Youth gold medals in 2021. – I will rest in retirement – Izabela Marcisz is still laughing.

The performance in Beijing is Marcisz’s debut at. And already in the first race in China, its result could surprise or impress. The 16th place in the joint race is a big achievement for the 21-year-old. Behind her were, for example, the revelation of Norwegian races, Helene Marie Fossesholm, or the experienced, three-time Olympic champion Charlotte Callla from Sweden.

– My voice is breaking, because for me this result is like winning a medal today – a Pole after the race. And he is right. Considering her history, it is an amazing result and confirmation of how great a talent she is.

Family tradition

The Marciszów passion for sport is passed on along with the genes. Iza’s sisters are no longer running – Marcela was involved in a doping case, a third party administered a doping substance, and Ewelina gave up her career after a few years of racing and started training the disabled. Mum and dad – Barbara and Marek – raised the master themselves, learning from mistakes and drawing on family successes. Brother Szymon also grows up with his skis attached. Brother Marek grew up but died at the age of 16.

He was one of the most talented juniors in the country. He represented MKS Halicz Ustrzyki Dolne, where his father was the coach at the time. He was the first of the family’s sports diamonds. He won gold medals in junior championships, was the provincial champion and the winner of the Polish Cup in cross-country skiing. When he was 16, a tragedy struck. As described by the portal rzeszow.wyborcza.pl, the young competitor noticed how the tractor rolled down on his grandmother. While trying to save her, he himself fell under the machine. He died on November 4, 2005 as a result of his injuries. His sisters would later start and win in the memorial named after him.

Izabela Marcisz was then six years old and she was already absorbing the family tradition of cross-country skiing. She started jogging when she was two years old. She grabbed the skis and it was impossible to pull her away from them. Mother Barbara and father Marek became the first coaches for their third daughter-runner. The previous ones were the representatives of Poland – Marcela and Ewelina.

Premature careers

Marcela is the eldest of the three sisters. She took part in the competition six times, but never scored any points. She participated in the world junior and youth championships and the Universiade, but never achieved greater success. She appeared in the frame and then dropped out of it. She claimed that not everyone wanted her presence there. She started until 2017, when she ended her career prematurely. She was diagnosed with trimetazidine – a forbidden drug by which she was disqualified for eighteen months. She was supposed to have a cold and take a drug with a banned substance just before the Polish championship, in which she was fourth in the 5-kilometer run and fifth in the sprint. Marcela was unaware of doping, so the person administering the substance was punished as well. His identity was not revealed.

Ewelina finished her adventure with running just over a year after her sister. Her career was richer in successes – a silver and bronze medal at the Strbske Pleso Universiade in 2015, a total of eleven World Cup points, performances at three editions of the World Championships and the Olympics in Pyongyang. She did not fall out of the frame, but was never her main character. “At some point in life there comes nostalgia, a kind of doubt in achieving your goals. It was first and foremost my decision, and in my opinion it was reasonable” – she explained finishing her career. Today she is a trainer for the disabled. She became an assistant in the paralympic team.

Brought up in cross-country skating, growing up with a hard work

Marcisz first trained in Halicz Ustrzyki Dolne, together with her sisters. She started to take part in national competitions. Even before her debut on the international arena, she won the first medals of the Polish championship – for example, the bronze medal in the 5 km race in March 2016. As a 16-year-old, which promised success in the future.

Marek Marcisz senior moved his daughter to his newly created Prządki Ski Association, where also her younger brother, Szymon, was also found. The player’s career accelerated in 2018. First, in January, she made her debut at the Junior World Championships – in Goms she took, among others, 31st Freestyle Sprint. She found herself in the A team for the 2018/2019 season, in which she also made her debut in the World Cup – in Davos, where, after unsuccessful qualifying for the sprint, she was 43rd in the 10km freestyle run. For a long time she was important in the fight for points – she was twelfth until the first timing, and she was sixteenth in the middle of the competition. However, it later fell in the classification, although she could consider the debut as definitely successful.

Under the wings of Justyna and coach Wierietielny

In the frame, Marcisz went to Aleksander Wierietielny and his assistant. – What Iza Marcisz did sometimes just amazed us -. – For her age she is doing very well, she wants to work and makes progress – praised the two-time Olympic champion. – I think that Justyna will be a compliment if I say that she is very demanding. And I am very happy that it is so, because I like to get difficult tasks – said Marcisz later about the trainer and former great competitor.

Already in 2019 she was close to a medal at the Junior World Championships. It also made its debut at the Senior M. There she achieved one of the results of which she can be very proud to this day – she was the 27th in a combined race. The championship itself turned out to be a very difficult experience for her. – I have never experienced such pain in my life. The more I am proud of myself, but most of all I have my parents in my head. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have reached the finish line for sure. They sent power and thanks to them I have such a character that I did not give up on the route – she said after skiathlon.

Then came the singles World Cup points, but also the 2020 Junior World Championships in Oberwiesenthal. And this is the culmination of Marcisz’s career so far. She went there with dreams of a podium and medals. She left as, according to some experts, a candidate for a future racing star. She won three medals – two silver in the sprint and 15 km freestyle from the mass start, and a bronze one in the 5 km “classic”. Only success in the relay race was missing. A year later, she celebrated a huge success in Vuokatti, where she won gold at the Youth World Championships.

Marcisz was already praised and called the second Justyna Kowalczyk. But she won’t. The four-time winner of the Crystal Ball herself warned against such words. – I hope Izka will not take to her mind all those fairy tales about writing history. From history, she should remember only one thing: there were already better juniors who, after their success, got lost somewhere – she noted in a Twitter post after M¦J in 2020. – May it keep doing its job. She worked on her own very hard and simple methods – summed up one of the most outstanding female players in history.

Kowalczyk is no longer in the team of runners, but she decided to help Marcisz, which can be seen in her social media, for example. He often publishes photos of their joint training sessions. . One cannot forget also – first, and now the trainer who also supports Marcisz.

From the accident, after which the Tajner collapsed, to the sixteenth place at the Olympics. Marcisz finds himself at home in the great world of sport

The road to the Beijing Olympics was not easy for Marcisz either. In the summer she suffered a serious facial contusion after a serious fall in training. – Iza had an accident in Strbske Pleso at a training camp for runners. She fell while training on roller skis, was about to loop when pushed away with poles. This blocked her and she flew to her face -. The president of the Polish Ski Association was devastated and even provided us with information that it might be after the Olympics for the runner. He claimed that Marcisz even had broken teeth. This, however, was denied by the runner herself. And she returned to training very quickly, with even greater determination.

And she prepared herself well enough that she achieved a lifetime result. The 16th place in the combined 15 km race is her best career result in top-level competitions. And after Marcisz, only the introduction to the great world of sport. And it depends on her how he will find himself in this world.