Back from the ashes, Poland return to the A- Division

Five years ago, Poland were unable to compete internationally, but now, they are ready to take on the giants of European curling once again.

Following the suspension of the previously recognised governing body, athletes were frozen out from representing their country until 2023. That year, the men’s team returned in the European Curling Championships C- Division, gaining promotion at the first timing of asking. Then in 2024, they were runners-up in the B- Division, securing promotion again to the top tier.

Team Poland after securing promotion at the European Curling Championships 2024 B- Division © World Curling / Per Danielsson

The Rise of Konrad Stych

Konrad Stych has been pivotal to this change in fortune. Poland first featured at the European Curling Championships in 2004, winning two of their eight games in the B- Division. Seven years later, Stych, then just 16, was the alternate for the national team. At 18, he played second in the rink that qualified for a tie-break in their A- Division promotion bid. At 20, he was throwing last as the vice-skip to Tomasz Ziolo before becoming an alternate again at 22. That year, Poland gained promotion to the top tier for the first time.

Yet, Stych’s side would not get to experience that historic moment. Despite being the team to give the nation its best result to date, Borys Jasiecki’s rink — where Stych was vice-skip — lost to Bartosz Dzikowski’s quartet in the national qualifier. They nearly bounced straight back up to the A- Division after Dzikowski’s 2018 relegation, but finished third in 2019.

Just as momentum was building, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Shortly after, the Member Association was suspended, with a new provisional membership approved by the World Curling Congress in 2022.

Rebuilding during uncertainty

That time away gave Stych space to reflect on their 2018 national defeat and team structure. He took over as skip from Jasiecki, keeping Krzysztof Domin and Bartosz Lobaza while adding Marcin Cieminski.

This new squad was formed during a period of uncertainty four years ago, requiring sacrifice as the players lived three hours away from Lodz, the home of the skip, meaning weekend-only practice.

Two years ago, as they prepared to compete again for the national team, they added Czech curler Jakub Bares as coach — proof of their dedication.

“We were a bit annoyed that we couldn’t compete at the European Championships, but we knew that we can just practise and it won’t be forever until we can compete back again,” said Stych.

“In the past we didn’t qualify for the A- Division, and that just gave us more motivation to practise and to be even more dominant.”

Konrad Stych at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2025 © World Curling / Alessio Bergadano

Domestic dominance, European Ambitions and beyond

Focused on local and regional tournaments, the team sharpened their skills and adopted a professional training approach. It shaped them into the best curling team in the country, winning three consecutive national titles, earning automatic selection for the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2025 A- Division — their first time competing against Europe’s elite.

Their 2024 campaign saw them defeat Türkiye and the dark horse outfit Ireland en route to the B- Division gold medal game. Though they lost to Denmark, finishing in the top two guaranteed promotion.

“We knew it would be hard, but we fought pretty well for it,” said Stych.

“We are really a team, and the results show that we can focus on those big World Curling events.

“Generally, tournaments aren’t our biggest strength, but when it comes to Europeans or any qualifiers, there’s something that changes our performance and we can just handle it. The pressure and playing tight games in the qualifiers, I think we’re just good at it.

“To achieve our goal to stay in the A- Division, we don’t need to qualify for play-offs, so we just need three wins and a good DSC, and that’s our goal at the end of the event.

“We have also never played the top-tier teams, so we don’t know how it will be on the ice. We don’t know what we are going to feel, but we just know that probably, percentage-wise, they will outplay us. Hopefully the tactics that we prepared will allow us to just stay close to the end of the game, and then maybe out-play them at the last shot.”

October brought another milestone: qualification from the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event in Aberdeen, backed by the loyal Polish population living in Scotland. This took them one step closer to Poland’s first curling appearance at the Olympic Winter Games.

“We had to fill in all those Olympic Committee documents for Polish affiliation right now, so we kind of feel it,” Stych admitted.

Team Poland © World Curling / Alessio Bergadano

Facing adversity and building a winning culture

Now, the rest of the season is about remaining in the A- Division and hoping to qualify for the World Men’s Curling Championship. But despite this sporting success and future ambitions, funding remains a hurdle.

The team is self-funded, with Stych’s parents’ company covering a quarter of sponsorship, and another business providing clothing. Then an anonymous sponsor stepped in to cover the rink’s costs for the season after reading about their struggles.

“I think we got lucky,” said Stych.

“It was just a nice guy that wanted to support us. He’s not even into curling. Right now, he’s watching our games with his family, that’s what we know, but we don’t know anything more about it.

“After seeing an article written on a Polish website about our team and about the lack of funding he just decided to sponsor us.”

A conscious decision to improve their physical and mental conditioning seems to have paid off. Aside from playing Mario Kart and the card game Bluff in their downtime, the team have brought in a sports psychologist. One of their core values is good relations within the team, focusing on scheduled time together off-ice, just like any other activity in their diary.

They also consulted in literature that helped support their goals by creating thought exercises, including their ambitions for the future.

“The funny fact is when the team was created and we answered what the goal was; it was to go to the 2026 Olympics, so that’s really funny that that was what we agreed on,” added Stych.

“Four years later it’s this exact team and we’ll see where it brings us.”

He ends the call to return to reviewing Polish Olympic Committee documentation before bed. Something that could easily send you to sleep, but also something that can spark dreams of seeing the Polish flag at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.