Adam Malik and a long journey to elevate Sitting Volleyball in Poland

•  8 June, 2025

The development of any sport and especially of any Paralympic sport requires time, resilience, and much patience. This very much applies to the trajectory that women's Sitting Volleyball has been experiencing in Poland under the guidance and leadership of Adam Malik. Team Poland was an outsider at the Golden Nations League held in Wisla - and yet, it has shown that it is slowly but surely progressing and at times, even though they still lack consistency, they have been able to keep up with much more experienced opponents.

Malik has a wealth of experience in international Volleyball, having worked with the legendary Andrzej Niemczyk, during whose tenure the women's national team claimed back-to-back European titles in 2003 and 2005. He has a very good understanding of what the game is all about and uses statistical data to his advantage. Sitting Volleyball has been funded by the Polish Paralympic Committee since they finished among the top eight teams in Europe at the 2021 edition of the European Championship held in Turkey. However, there is still much work to do for its wider recognition and to secure further support.

The sport is run by ParaVolley Poland, a foundation with non-profit status, and the players live across the country, making it at times difficult to work together, even though a number of training camps are organised each year. After 2021, the team was somehow weakened by the departure and premature retirement of three players as two moved abroad and another stopped playing after her disability worsened resulting in the amputation of a limb. 

However, Malik and his team have been working hard to promote Sitting Volleyball, also by organising international events in Myslowice and the Golden Nations League in Wisla is the most recent such example. It was quite special to see on Friday, when Poland played Italy, many schoolchildren coming together to follow the action, support the home side with much noise and passion, and even walking around to collect the autographs of the local players. A moment that Team Poland will never forget and an opportunity for many youngsters to familiarise themselves with the world of disability, para sport, and more specifically with Sitting Volleyball.

• Malik supports diversity and inclusion with much commitment and he is the man behind the first Sitting Volleyball club run by an elite professional team - none other than CEV Champions League Volley silver medal winners Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE. This is where he has helped establish and grow Aluron CMC Paravolley and where he advocates for able-bodied and athletes with disabilities to play together to grow the sport. The journey remains long to secure the recognition the athletes deserve and yet a country as Volleyball-mad as Poland may well become the next Sitting Volleyball stronghold!