Oliwia Nowacka

Happy birthday to Poland’s sprinter Oliwia Nowacka, a two-time national medallist who has made herself very difficult to leave off a relay card.

Oliwia races for KS AZS AWF Wrocław, one of the serious sprint programmes in a country that treats sprinting as a national project, and 2026 has had her doing the least glamorous and most trusted job in athletics: running a relay leg. In May at Słubice she took the third leg for her squad, which is the leg you hand to somebody whose hands you trust when the baton comes in hot and there are four teams in the changeover box at once. Two national medals before 20, in Polish sprinting of all places, is a real sentence.

Twenty is a genuine line in the sand for a European sprinter. The junior years are done and the whole senior road opens up in front of her. Polish women’s sprinting has never been deeper, better coached or better supported than it is right now, and a fast 20-year-old in Wrocław has every reason to look at the next four years and see them as hers.

Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin, Oliwia! Sto lat — dużo zdrowia, dużo szczęścia i samych szybkich biegów w nowym roku. Powodzenia! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇵🇱