Historia Sekcji Pływackiej Masters TS Wisła Kraków (English)
Z Historia Wisły
Masters swimmers are born, win what is there to be won, and make room for new champions. However, they don't want to give up the passion that has filled their lives as long as their health allows them to enjoy swimming for a few, sometimes dozens of years after ending their professional careers. They can meet other former professionals and compete with them in the pool for the pleasure, for their health, for discipline, for fun, and satisfaction. This is a brief overview of the origins of masters swimming, which emerged in the 1970s and gained its initial formal structure in 1978 when swimming competitions were organized in Toronto for athletes over 25 years old.
Masters swimming, through swimming competitions, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open water swimming, promotes physical fitness, friendship, understanding, and competition among athletes who are at least 25 years old - as stated in the introduction to the general rules of the Polish Masters regulation. Such values also guide the Masters Swimming Section of TS Wisła Kraków.
On the official website of the TS Wisła section, edited by masters swimmer Anna Janeczko, it is mentioned: "The history of the section began at the Polish Masters Swimming Championships, held on December 3rd-4th, 2005 in Opole. On December 3rd, five people from Krakow - Maria Warchala, Barbara Oprysko, Paweł Lesiakowski, Anna Janeczko, and Anna Koźmin - who participated as 'unaffiliated' athletes from Krakow, recognized the need to establish an organization that would bring together swimming enthusiasts, both former athletes and people who consider swimming a hobby. (...) Negotiations with sports clubs in Krakow continued for some time, and ultimately, at a meeting on June 18th, 2006, it was decided that the club would operate under the Sports Society "Wisła" Kraków as the Masters Swimming Section. The official opening of the section took place on December 7, 2006."
Currently, the Masters Swimming Section of TS Wisła Kraków, one of twenty active sections in Poland, gathers around twenty people, including a group of former accomplished athletes, although a professional past is not a requirement for joining the section.
Masters swimmers are divided into age groups, within which they compete: 25-29 years (category A), 30-34 years (category B), 35-39 years (category C), 40-44 years (category D), 45-49 years (category E), and so on, even to the end of the alphabet, as long as they are eager to swim.
The athletes of the Masters Swimming Section of TS Wisła Kraków can boast numerous achievements. SINCE THE INCEPTION OF THE MASTERS SECTION, THE MASTERS HAVE COLLECTED 75 POLISH CHAMPION TITLES AND 125 POLISH RUNNER-UP TITLES. In addition, Stanisław Krokoszyński set 25 Polish records in category K (75-79 years) and 7 in category L (80-84 years), Anna Janeczko - two in category C (35-39 years), and Stanisław Trzaska - one in category F (50-54 years).
During the Polish Championships in Gliwice in May 2010, Stanisław Krokoszyński set a European record with a time of 03:11.92 in the 200m freestyle in category L (80-84 years).
