It’s a mythic event organized since 2009 to honor the youngest Polish Olympic champion. The competition has gone a long way, ba metamorphosis. It went from being a mythic event held on the side field of the capital’s SKRA, to one of the world’s biggest mythic events.
In 2022, the organizational professionalism was recognized and the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial was incorporated into the ranks of the DIAMOND League! This is the first in the Polish history of a mythionship of this rank. Only the Olympic Games and the World Championships are higher.
The Kamila Skolimowska Memorial is an international athletics meeting organized periodically since 2009 by the Kamila Skolimowska Foundation. On May 2, 2009, the “Memorial in honor of Kamila” was organized on the grounds of Skra in Warsaw, whose main message was to pay tribute to the prematurely deceased Olympic champion in the hammer throw from Sydney. Only the men’s and women’s hammer throw competitions were then held, and the event officially launched the Kamila Skolimowska Warsaw Hammer Throw Center. The event was to be a one-time venture, but after a year’s break, the Foundation’s board decided to organize another edition of the competition in a changed formula – in addition to the hammer throw, other athletic competitions were also contested. Ambassadors of the Kamila Skolimowska Foundation and participants in the Memorial since its first edition are friends of Kamila, great stars of world athletics – Tomasz Majewski and Piotr Malachowski.
200 000 +
KIBICÓW NA STADIONACH – w 2018 roku podczas Memoriału na trybunach Stadionu Śląskiego zasiadło ponad 41 tysięcy widzów.
10 mln +
WIDZÓW PRZED TELEWIZORAMI łącznie oglądało transmisje z Memoriału na antenach TVP 1 i TVP Sport w latach 2011-2021.
100 mln +
WIDZÓW w 50 krajach na całym świecie w latach 2014-2023
Memoriał Kamili Skolimowskiej to druga największa liczba kibiców lekkiej atletyki na stadionie w Polsce od czasów legendarnego meczu Polska – USA w 1958 roku.
The second edition of the Memorial was held on September 20, 2011 at the Warsaw Eagle Stadium. The wonderful atmosphere, the high level of sportsmanship and the opportunity to watch “live” such legends of the Queen of Sports as Merlene Ottey, Krisztián Pars, Gerd Kanter, Christian Cantwell and Oscar Pistorius made the Memorial a great success. Since then, the Memorial has been organized annually, usually at the end of the athletics season.
The third Memorial in 2012 brought further diversification – within the framework of the mythics, the Little Kamila Skolimowska Memorial was held for the first time, in which children and young people competed in seven athletic competitions. Sports-wise, the mythathon itself also climbed to a higher level – seven medalists of the London Olympics took part.
The fourth edition of the competition, held for the last time at Warsaw’s Eagle Stadium, was held under the slogan “Sport is one”. The event was inclusive, with the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities as one of the strategic partners of the mythnag. In most disciplines, athletes with disabilities competed alongside non-disabled athletes. The integration of athletes with and without disabilities is also a tribute to the memory of Kamila Skolimowska, who was very keen on properly honoring athletes with disabilities.
In 2014, the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial was held for the first time at the PGE National Stadium in Warsaw, and the biggest star of the competition was the legendary Usain Bolt, who set the then world’s best result in the 100m indoor (9.98 sec.). The start of the world’s fastest man attracted crowds of fans to the stands, but athletically better was Paweł Fajdek, who with a phenomenal series in the hammer throw overshadowed the great champion and showman from Jamaica. Three consecutive editions of the Memorial in 2015 – 2017 were also held in Poland’s largest stadium, and each year millions of viewers in front of TVs and tens of thousands in the stands of the PGE National admired the struggles of athletes from the world’s top and applauded numerous Polish, European and world records, with Anita Wlodarczyk’s magnificent 82.98m in the hammer throw in 2016 at the forefront.
Since 2018. The Kamila Skolimowska Memorial is organized at the Silesian Stadium, which, after modernization and adaptation for athletics competitions of the highest rank, has become the “home” of the Polish Queen of Sports. During the first Memorial held at the Silesian Stadium, as many as 41,200 spectators sat in the stands of the legendary “Witches’ Cauldron” in Chorzów – the second largest number of athletics fans in a stadium in Poland since the legendary Poland-USA match in 1958!
The level of the Memorial’s organization has been repeatedly complimented and praised. Therefore, the world athletics federation – World Athletics – included the competition in the prestigious World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series. Higher in the hierarchy was only the Diamond League.
Kamila Skolimowska Memorial “gold” was for 2 seasons – 2020 and 2021.
The year 2022 was originally supposed to remain “golden” as well. But a pandemic situation mainly in China forced a reconstruction of the Diamond League calendar. The Shanghai and Shenzhen myths were canceled. Memorial director Marcin Rosengarten received a phone call. A short question was asked – “Will you organize a Diamond League competition?”. The answer was obvious – YES. Thus, the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial is the first ever Polish meeting belonging to the Diamond League. In addition to cities such as Paris, Lausanne, Zurich, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo and Monaco – is SILESIA MEMORIAL OF KAMILA SKOLIMOWSKA ! This is a huge honor because the list of those waiting to be diamond is extremely long!
The first historic diamond competition took place on August 6, at the Silesian Stadium, of course. They ended with a huge sporting success – top stars, led by Armand Duplantis and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, came to Poland. But the Diamond League authorities also appreciated the organizational level of the event. The result – in December 2022, in Rome SILESIA Memorial Kamila Skolimowska heard YES 14 times. YES to the inclusion of the mythology FIXED INTO THE DIAMOND LEAGUE CALENDAR!!!
The next competition will take place on July 16 in Chorzow at the Silesian Stadium. And they will be one of the more important stops on the athletics road to the world championships in August.
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In addition to the struggles of leading athletes, the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial also includes “Training with the Master”, during which hundreds of young adepts of the “queen of sports” have the opportunity to train under the guidance of the greatest athletic champions and at the same time their idols.
Current information on the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial at: memorialkamili.pl
