The Polish Women’s National Team was founded in 1947. In their first official international appearance the White and Reds lost to Czechoslovakia 1-3, nevertheless Poland soon joined the group of World’s top teams and recorded significant achievements throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, including two Olympic bronze medals in Tokyo 1964 and Mexico 1968.
Since then, however, the last three decades were not so successful. A sudden and very enjoyable change came in 2003 with Head Coach Ryszard Andrzej Niemczyk.
Poles pulled off a huge surprise during 2003 European Championships in Turkey, knocking over the hosts in straight sets in the final to claim gold.
Malgorzata Glinka was honoured as the Best Scorer – and unofficially the MVP – of the tournament, while the team’s captain Magdalena Sliwa received the award for the Best Setter.
The debut of the Polish Team in the World Cup gave it the 8th place with Glinka again receiving the MVP honour of the tournament and 100.000 USD money award from FIVB.
In 2005 the National Team proved its superiority by defending the European Championship. Now it is preparing hardly to continue its stream of success on the road to World Cup in Japan where it hopes for a medal position.
After a line of success a stagnation period came in 2006. Despite a vast preparation plans the National Team was not able to reach the level it peaked in former years.
After tremendous losses in Montreux and World Grand Prix it ended up only 15 in the World Championships in Japan.
Head Coach Niemczyk due to health problems resigned from his function even before the Championships. The new Head Coach Marco Bonitta was chosen on March 2007.
The team was 6th in 2007 World Grand Prix.
Olympic Games: Bronze Medals in 1964 and 1968.
World Championships: Silver Medal in 1952, Bronze Medals in 1956 and 1962.
European Championships: Gold Medal in 2003, Silver Medals in 1950, 1951, 1963, 1967, Bronze Medals in 1949, 1955, 1958, 1971.
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Marco Bonitta was born in Ravenna, Italy, on 5th September 1963. He is married with two children. After a successful career in Italian Serie A, he was appointed as Italy Head Coach in the spring of 2001. Together with the Women’s teams, he won the gold medal in the Mediterranean Games in Tunis in September 2001 and the silver medal in the European Championship in Varna – Bulgaria. In 2002, after the 2nd place in the classic Montreux Tournament, he led Italy to the historical win in the World Championship achieved with the final match against the United States in Berlin on 15th September 2002.
In Athens, Italy ranked 5th. In the same season he led the women’s team to their 1st success in the traditional Montreux Volley Masters and to the 2nd place in the FIVB World Grand Prix.
In 2005 the team got the silver medal in European Championship; silver medal in the FIVB World Grand Prix, 2nd place in the Trophy of Valle D’Aosta in Courmayeur and 3rd place in the Montreux Volley Masters. Just before the 2006 World Championship he left the Italian team. He’s coaching Poland since March 2007 and he was 6th in 2007 World Grand Prix.
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POL / Poland
- Team Composition
Competition Formula