Ski jumping is an extremely popular sport in Poland. It is a successful sport. Resurrected at the beginning of the 21st century by "Malyszomania", it still attracts a large audience at competitions and in front of TV screens. Before the outbreak of the Second World War it was similar. Competitions were organised frequently. Even in places that are now outside the country.

Enthusiasts of two boards picked up the pieces of land quite quickly after the partitions, creating the Polish Ski Association on 26 December 1919. A few weeks later, on 22 February 1920, the first national champion was crowned on the quickly built terrain hill at Antałówka in Zakopane. It was Leszek Pawłowski from Lviv. Thus began the history of the Polish championships, which continues to this day.

If we look at the organising cities from the perspective of all the years, the competitions were usually held in Zakopane, Wisła or Szczyrk. There was also Karpacz or Szklarska Poręba. But before 1939, two more localities clearly catch the eye: Vorochta and Slavsko. Today, both lie outside Polish territory.

Ela, who won with the boys
Vorokhta is a village in south-western Ukraine. It is about 100 kilometres from there to Ivano-Frankivsk. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, it was a Polish tourist destination, recognised as a health resort in 1928. It was also an important winter sports centre.

In 1922, a ski jump was opened there. Located on the slope of Rebrowacz, it was built by activists of the Polish Tatry Society in Stanislawow and became the arena of the third Polish championships. The organisation of these competitions was done by the members of the ski section of the ski club "Czarni" from Lviv. About the object was written in the "Przeglad Sportowy":

"The ski jump, constructed by the expert hand of Lieutenant Pawlowski, turned out to be a good one, although there were some defects which, with more snow and with stronger frost, could have been removed, such as the directly opposite slope of the jump itself and the landing plane, the absolutely too narrow snow strip for landing."

But Vorochta received the championships not only because it had a new jump. In the "Polish Skiing" of 1925 readers could read:

"Disregarding the fact that this competition in distant Vorokhta was a deficit undertaking, the Main Board of the P. Z. N. was guided by propaganda reasons and the desire to awake a lively skiing movement in the eastern Lesser Poland. At the same time the championships of the Army were organised and for the first time the Association officially cooperated with the military authorities".

Unfortunately, although the intentions were noble and probably right, apart from the competing skiers, even on the cross-country trails, there were no crowds in vain. Not many facilities were made available to the competitors and judges, and the biggest headache was communication. As reported by Przegląd Sportowy, some of the starters travelled nearly 50 hours to the venue and had no chance to rest before the competition.

But on Sunday afternoon, 5 March 1922, quite a few locals (surprisingly!) gathered in front of the venue. Everybody wanted to watch a ski jumping competition, which was not very popular in this area, but attractive to the eye. Before the first trials it was announced that the best Polish athletes would show up. And that was indeed the case. Aleksander Rozmus, Andrzej Krzeptowski, Eugeniusz Kaliciński and Henryk Mückenbrunn all competed for the titles. How surprised the public must have been when, somewhere next to these "super flyers", a... woman was preparing for her attempt.

Elżbieta Michalewska-Ziętkiewiczowa, as she was referred to, was not an anonymous figure in skiing circles. On the contrary. The "beautiful Ela" was appreciated and respected because she could ski and run like a man. She learned this art in Austria, where she had perfected piano playing in her youth. In her spare time, when she stepped away from the keyboard and sheet music, she would put on her skis and hit the slopes. Regularity, great talent and contact with the best meant that at one point Ela was as good as her colleagues. So it should come as no surprise that she appeared at the aforementioned Polish championships.

Presence by presence, but Michalewska-Ziętkiewicz presented a very high sporting level that day! Apart from the future national champion, the aforementioned Rozmus, most of the jumpers jumped very reticently on that day. They were unanimous in explaining the thaw and the resulting little snow on the landing hill. This situation could have led to falls and injuries. Or maybe the excuses had a completely different source? Maybe it was just that the men's group was simply ashamed of getting beaten up by a woman.

"There is no need to extensively mention the jumps of the second class seniors, because apart from Ms Michalewska-Ziętkiewiczowa, who had two beautiful jumps, the rest of the athletes, with minor exceptions, were not at all suitable to be allowed on the large hill," wrote the reporter of the "Przeglad Sportowy".

Ela made two beautiful jumps. After one of them she landed on 12 metres and scored 2,100 points. She thus became the second class senior national champion/champion. She left Jozef Zubek (silver) and Stefan Zagorski behind her. In the competition of the first class athletes, only Aleksander Rozmus jumped much further - 17 metres. Silver medallist Krzeptowski landed only 2 metres further and bronze medallist (Kalicinski) 1.5 metres and had a lower score than our heroine. Ela did it!

Over the next few years, the brave skier competed in many competitions. She always tried to finish among the best. "Beautiful Ela" went down in the history of Polish and world sport forever. At a time when few women were skiing, she was able to win against men. After the war, she was never heard of again.

And what about the ski jump? It was rebuilt several times. In the collection of the National Digital Archive you can find a photograph from 1931, in which the facility is a construction site. In the mid 1950s, it was enlarged. In the monthly magazine "Zima" Ziemilski wrote as follows:

"In the Carpathians, the main winter sports centre is Vorokhta. Recently, the association "Kolkhoznik" has converted the existing ski jump there from the critical point of 60 m to 80 m. The associations have their bases in Vorokhta".

Slavsko, chalet and competition
A little over a year later, for the second and last time, ski jumpers competed for the championship title in a place which today is not within the administrative borders of Poland - in Slavsko, in the Lviv region, in the Eastern Bieszczady mountains.

The 1923 championship, like the previous ones, had a sports-propaganda character. This time the accompanying event was the opening of a hostel of the Carpathian Ski Association (KTN).

According to some sources, the venue of the competition was the facility on the slope of Kiczerka. But press reports mention at least two venues. "Przegląd Sportowy" wrote:

"The senior jumps took place on the large hill on the slopes of Zelené; the hill is located on the
north slope and with some improvements it could become one of the best in our country. As it stands now, it has too short an inrun, is perhaps too high, and the outrun is definitely too long. This makes the way back difficult for the athletes.

A report by Rudolf Wiecek from "Sport" also mentions a larger and a smaller hill:

. "Snow conditions on the first day of the competition tolerable, on the second day especially on the large hill very bad; therefore only Krzeptowski A. and Muckenbrunn H. managed to perform jumps without a fall, all other competitors fell".

Several things are certain, however. Firstly, many great skiers did not come to Slawsko. Ski associations from Cieszyn or Bielsko did not send their representations. Most painful was the absence of the Tatra champion, Bujak. He supposedly said that the competition was too far away.

It is also certain that the Polish champion in ski jumping at that time was Andrzej Krzeptowski I. "Przegląd Sportowy":

"And in this competition Krzeptowski, with the correctness of style in all phases, the certainty and boldness of the jump showed the highest class. Rozmus, with a nice form, had a less sure jump, while Miickenbrun stood very confidently, but his style and form left a lot to be desired. In the second class Scott, with jumps of the average length of his class, had the best attitude and a confident jump-off".

These two competitions are real 'gems' in the history of domestic jumping. After the end of World War II and the change of borders, the two towns described were important winter sports centres first of the USSR and then of Ukraine. In fact, the Belarusian team also trained at Vorokhta. But in February 2022, after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, everything changed. And sport took a back seat...