The Little National Hero

The Poles elected Pope John Paul II to be their outstanding figure of the 20th century. Second place went to a tiler with a moustache.

Poland is a country where the boundaries between art and sports become blurred in a pleasant way. Ski jumpers are often seen visiting theater performances. And well-known theater directors reflect on ski jumpers. Wojtek Klemm, for instance, once said the following about Adam Malysz: “The consistency of his victories is something special for a Pole. For centuries the Poles saw themselves as romantics whose mission was to do something great and magnificent, but at the same time they were drawn only to singular and wholly impractical deeds. Their motto was: pull off a grand, unique and admirable attack and then die.“

In 2001, the year of his first World Championship title, Malysz won nine World Cup ski jumping events and remained unchallenged in the overall ranking. In 2002 and 2003, the Pole was also the overall World Cup champion. Neither before nor after has any other ski jumper succeeded in such an impressive show of consistency.

World Cup Beats Nobel Prize

In the election of the “most outstanding Pole of the 20th century“, Adam Malysz came in second. Oscar winners such as Andrzej Wajda, Nobel prize laureates such as Marie Curie and presidents such as Lech Walesa finished behind the trained tiler. There was only one ahead of him: Karol Józef Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II. Adam’s home in the small town of Wisla to the south-west of Cracow is seen as a tourist attraction and has almost become a pilgrimage site. Buses with fans come from all over the country to get a glimpse of the great popular hero – or at least of his house.

Personal Happiness, Professional Crash

“Malysz“ literally means “little“. The athlete, who is actually only 1.69 meters tall, landed his first World Cup victory at the same time as his idol Jens Weißflog took his last jump in 1996. At the age of 19, the man with the moustache won three World Cup competitions and also grabbed the Polish Junior Champion title in the Nordic Combined.

But a crash followed instead of a fast breakthrough. In 1997 Adam married his childhood sweetheart and became a father. The responsibility for his daughter Karolina put him under enormous pressure, which he did not feel up to. “Suddenly I was responsible for a small human being but I still felt like a child myself.” The low point of his career were the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. He came in 51st on the normal hill and 52nd on the large hill.

Phoenix on the Jump

He spent four years chasing his competitors . “It’s not me who got worse. The others got better, while I stood still.“ In the 2000/2001 season “Batman from Wisla“ (to quote the title of a biography that appeared in 2002) took everyone by surprise. He won the Four Hills Tournament with a record lead of more than 100 points. His trainer at the time, Apoloniusz Tajner, explained: “What Malysz achieved four years ago was the fruit of his talent. What he has accomplished now can be explained by hard work.“

A ski jumper writes history

The reward for his hard labor was a fantastic streak of luck that has lasted to the present day. So far he has won four World Championship titles, more than any other ski jumper before him, and as many overall World Cups. The only other athlete to win four times is Matti Nykänen, who also holds the record for the most victories in the World Cup: 46 for the Finn, 38 for Malysz, who competed in his 250th World Cup competition in February. If Malysz maintains his current superiority in the next season as well, Nykänen’s dethronement will only be a question of time: the 29-year old won as many as nine World Cup competitions just between January and March 2007.