The wooden ski jump of 1932-1933

Skiing in Wisła has a tradition older than the fame of Malinka itself. In the interwar period, when Wisła was developing as a summer resort and winter sports centre, among other things a ski jump was built in Głębce. The first wooden ski jump in Malinka was erected in 1932-1933 under the leadership of Rudolf Kowala. Its first record holder was Mieczysław Kozdruń, who jumped 41 metres.

The facility was rebuilt several times. The first major reconstruction took place in 1953, from 1958 a prestigious international tournament for the Beskid Cup was held here, and in 1966-1967 the jump was extended following guidelines by the engineer Jerzy Muniak, designer of many Polish ski jumps. In 1970 it was enlarged to a construction point of K105 and fitted with a steel inrun tower. The distance record on this jump, 102.5 m, belonged to Tadeusz Fijas.

The history of the facility also knows dramatic moments. In 1960, just before departing for the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley, Zdzisław Hryniewiecki suffered a serious fall during training. He broke his spine and had to end his career.

Adam Małysz from Wisła

The hero of the whole story is Adam Małysz, born on 3 December 1977 in Wisła. Skiing traditions had long been in his family: his great-grandfather had his own ski jump, his father worked as a driver at the Wisła Sports Club, and his uncle Jan Szturc was a ski jumper and then a club coach. At the age of six Małysz began training, and he made his first jump on the K17 hill in Wisła-Centrum. After landing at the seventh metre he fell, because his boots were too big.

His career includes four Olympic medals (silver and bronze in 2002 and two silvers in 2010), six World Championship medals and four overall World Cup victories. He ended his jumping career after the 2010/2011 season. Małysz's achievements can be seen in Wisła in two places. The Adam Małysz Sports Trophies Gallery shows, according to its description, about a thousand exhibits: cups, medals, skis and suits. The Adam Małysz Beskid Skiing Centre is a multimedia museum with two floors of exhibition, jumping simulators and a collection of equipment, including skis from the end of the 19th century, and it grew out of the private Zimowit museum.

The new ski jump: from the foundation deed to Małysz's name

On the wave of Małysz's successes, in 2001 it was decided to demolish the old K105 jump. The last official competition on it, the Polish Championships, was held on 28 February 2001. There is a detail here that shows how close to the limit of risk these competitions are: Wojciech Skupień jumped 112.5 m then, which was the last record of the old facility, and shortly after him Robert Mateja jumped 119 m, but did not stand the landing, so the jump was not counted. After this attempt the competition was interrupted and started again.

The foundation deed of the new ski jump was signed by President Aleksander Kwaśniewski on 28 October 2003 on the Wisła market square. Construction began in the winter of 2004. In August 2006 the ground slid on the slope. According to an expert report by AGH in Kraków, the designers had assumed that the ground was solid rock, and in reality it was unstable shale. The repair prolonged the work, which was completed in the summer of 2008.

The first jump on the new facility was made on 17 September 2008 by Adam Małysz himself, achieving a distance slightly beyond the K point, but the jump was not measured or judged by referees. The official opening took place on 25-28 September 2008, during the Summer Polish Championships in ski jumping and Nordic combined. It was then too that the jump was named after Adam Małysz.

The Adam Małysz ski jump: facts about the facility

The ski jump has a construction point of K120 and a hill size of HS 134. It lies at an altitude of 630 m above sea level on the northern slope of the Cieńków ridge, above the Malinka stream. Alongside Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane, it is one of the two large ski jumps in Poland. It has a plastic-matting surface, frozen inrun tracks and artificial lighting. The official stand capacity is 8000 places, of which 1233 are seated.

After its opening the jump hosted competitions of various ranks: in the 2008/09 season the first Continental Cup event was held here, in 2010 the Summer Grand Prix, and on 9 January 2013 the jump hosted World Cup competitions for the first time. In 2017 ice tracks were installed, thanks to which competitions can also be held at above-zero temperatures. In 2023 a thorough modernisation began: the angle of the take-off was changed, and the landing slope was rebuilt and raised. Because of the change of profile the International Ski Federation (FIS) decided to reset the official hill record.

Other ski jumps in the Beskids

Wisła is not the only place for ski jumping in the region. In Szczyrk, on the northern slope of Skalite, there is a complex of three year-round ski jumps: the normal K95 (HS104), the medium K70 (HS77) and the small K40 (HS44). According to the site's entry, the first competitions were held here on 14 February 1937, and in 1958-1989 the most important event was the Beskid Cup. Małysz himself, as his biography shows, competed at Skalite as early as 12 March 1993, in the Polish junior championships.

Two smaller jumps, HS-31 and HS-19, stand on the boundary of Bielsko-Biała and Bystra: this is the LKS Klimczok complex, built in 2009-2010 and covered with plastic matting, so jumping takes place on it outside winter as well. Such small facilities are the base from which successive generations of jumpers grow, just as Małysz once began on the K17 hill in Wisła-Centrum.