Grocholska-Kurkowiak Barbara (born 1927)

The Wonderful Years of Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak

the author of the article is Mrs. Halina Zdebska

Barbara Grocholska was born on August 24, 1927, in Falenty near Warsaw, into the family of Barbara from the Czetwertyński family Grocholska and Col. Adam Remigiusz Grocholski (an officer in the Polish Army). They were quite a large family, as she had nine siblings (Mikołaj, Remigian, Michał, Anna, Ignacy, Franciszek, Włodzimierz, Piotr, Elżbieta). “I had wonderful parents, we were a happy, loving family. I owe everything best in me to them,” says Barbara Grocholska today.

She was interested in sports from childhood; she rode horses very well, ran, but at that time she did not think she would take up skiing.

When World War II broke out, she was staying with her aunt in the Lublin region.

After the arrest of her grandfather and aunt by the Germans (they were imprisoned in Ravensbruck and Buchenwald camps), she returned to Warsaw in 1940, where she lived with her mother and siblings at 7 Ikara Street.

Adam Remigiusz Grocholski, just after the September defeat, got involved in underground activities (he had, among others, the pseudonym “Waligóra”). In 1942, Barbara Grocholska passed her junior high school exams in secret teaching, at the so-called Complets at the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. In the same year, she joined the underground formation of the 1st Regiment of Uhlans. Her brother Mikołaj was also in the Uhlans, while Remigian was in the “Zośka” battalion, and Michał in the Gray Ranks.

During the Warsaw Uprising, Barbara Grocholska participated as a nurse (pseudonym “Kuczerawa” due to her very curly hair). Three of her siblings also fought. They felt the fall of the uprising painfully, but they were still very lucky because they all survived. However, they had to leave Warsaw, and since Barbara suffered from bronchial asthma, her parents decided that Zakopane would be the best place for her. This is how she ended up in the Tatra Mountains. Right after the war, she started studying at the Economic High School in Kuźnice, which she graduated from in 1947. The mountains completely captivated Barbara. She spent every free moment there.

In the Zakopane community, she was very well received. Probably because of her personality traits: always smiling, cheerful, cordial, open to people. Her friendly attitude towards the surrounding reality, inner warmth, and joy of life made the people she found herself among after the war nightmare repay her with the same, treating her with great sympathy.

It was in Zakopane that her skiing began. “Thinking about the period of competitions, I think that my entry, such a complete one into skiing, was based on being enchanted by the mountains and a certain sports temperament with which I was born,” she recalls today.

Her first ski descents showed that she had great talent. She debuted in 1948, during the Cableway Cup competitions.

She then took third place and was immediately noticed. Barbara Grocholska (SNPTT Zakopane), who was competing in the PKL downhill races for the first time, promises to be an outstanding downhill talent. In her first start, she was placed in the leading group of Polish female skiers. Grocholska has a bold male style of skiing and is in excellent physical condition (“Sport i Wczasy”, March 4, 1948).

Participating in these competitions marked the beginning of a long and extremely interesting sports career. She started representing the colors of SNPTT Zakopane, later she was also a competitor of WKS Legia, WKN Warsaw, and “Start” Zakopane. It’s worth noting that after the ski season ended, she successfully engaged in athletics (high jump – best result 163 cm, she also ran hurdles).

She honed her skills under the guidance of coaches: Jan Lipowski, Tomasz Gluziński, and Stefan Dziedzic. Each of them helped her delve into the secrets of skiing excellence.

After graduating from the Economic High School, she took exams for the Higher Pedagogical School in Krakow, but unfortunately without success. She didn’t attempt again because skiing completely took over her. And with a capital S. In 1950, she was called up to the Polish national team. She brought not only high skills but also great joy of life and a smile. “It was thanks to Basia that there was a wonderful atmosphere in the team,” recalls Olympian Maria Szatkowska (née Gąsienica-Daniel). “She was someone special to all of us, someone you could always trust, confide in. She was like a sister to us, maybe even more? Our friendship, which began on skis, has stood the test of time and exists to this day…”

Her sports career was not just about fighting on the slope for the best time but also repeatedly struggling with her health. Asthma attacks constantly troubled her. While she felt relatively good in Zakopane, the competitions in Szczyrk were sheer torture for her. Sometimes she felt she would suffocate before reaching the end of the course… She was also plagued by injuries, often just before the most important competitions. Probably one of the reasons was her weak mental resilience. “I experienced competitions not very consciously. I was always accompanied by enormous stress, which was almost paralyzing. I could go through the most difficult slalom gates at maximum speed, but for completely unknown reasons, fall on a flat section, a few meters before the finish line. Sometimes I wondered if I could see and avoid a concrete wall if someone placed it on the downhill course.”

The greatest stress always accompanied her during international competitions. Patriotism, strengthened by the consciously experienced Second World War, was also fueled by officials deciding who could travel abroad. “We were always told: remember, you are going for Poland, for Poland, etc. The effect was completely different from what was intended. We were so tense, and yet each of us was doing everything to show ourselves in the best light. When I first went to the Alps, I was simply amazed by the conditions for skiing. I thought then – considering the conditions we train in the country – we are not doing too badly. I remember that during the Tatra Cup in Czechoslovakia, I went off the course during the downhill run. The rules allowed me to continue the descent. When I was scrambling out of the snow, I was genuinely embarrassed that I, a representative of Poland, was carried into the forest. So I covered the eagle on my sleeve just in case. I skied with the conviction that it was my work for Poland. It was certainly also an escape from all the horrors happening in Poland at that time…

The fifties were a dark period in Polish history. Sport was an integral part of reality, so athletes, especially national representatives, were also under the supervision of appropriate services. “During a camp in Kalatówki, before leaving for the Olympic Games in Oslo, we were visited by gentlemen from Warsaw. We were called for individual talks and encouraged to ‘snitch’ on each other. Of course, none of us agreed to this. When it turned out that several colleagues in a row received such proposals, we asked the next one, who had just left the ‘talks’ room, if he also received such a task. When he denied it, we shouted in unison ‘snitch, snitch’! We simply saved ourselves with laughter, although we knew perfectly well that these were serious matters. After all, we constantly heard about arrests, harassment, which also affected acquaintances, friends, and even members of our families. We escaped from this grim reality into the mountains, onto skis…

Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak occupies a special place in the history of Polish skiing. She is an absolute record holder, considering the number of Polish championship titles won.

She belongs to the generation that began skiing just after the war, in extremely difficult conditions. Therefore, her achievements should be viewed in a broader context.

She won the Polish championship titles 24 times: in downhill (1951, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1968), slalom (1958, 1960-63), giant slalom (1956 – 1958, 1960, 1963) and combination (1951, 1961, 1963, 1965). She was also many times the vice-champion of the country. She represented Poland at the Olympic Games in Oslo (1952 – 13th place in downhill, 14th place in slalom) and in Cortina d’Ampezzo (1956 – 17th place in downhill and 20th in giant slalom) and at the world championships (1958). She won medals four times at the world academic championships (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze). She also successfully participated in numerous international competitions, where in confrontation with the world elite, she placed among the top ten competitors. This was the case, among others, in Grindelwald (1957), where she took fourth place in slalom and giant slalom. Her start was also commented on in the foreign press: “If ever a run in an absolutely perfect style was successful, it was in Grindelwald. The ride of the Polish Barbara Grocholska in slalom and giant slalom was truly exemplary and in a style worthy of attention. From start to finish tight ski control, textbook-like turns, a pleasure to watch. Unfortunately, due to a small amount of training, the Poles resigned from starting in the downhill. And yet Barbara Grocholska (as the fourth) could certainly have a lot to say here too…(“Sport Bund” 1957, translated by E. Sierosławska).

Thanks to her success in Grindelwald, her photo appeared on the cover of the Swiss “Die Woche”. As the only Polish skier, she was noticed by the authors of the Sports Encyclopedia published in Monaco (Encyclopedie Universelle des Sport. Le Ski. Et les sports d’hiver. Lavail Union Europeenne d’Editions, Monaco 1960 , vol. II, p. 102.), where her photo was placed and she was distinguished for particularly nice (in terms of style) slalom runs.

A great, unfulfilled sports dream remained the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley (1960). Due to financial difficulties, the Polish downhill team did not participate in them. She regrets this very much to this day. It seemed to her that she was very well prepared at that time, fortunately, she avoided injuries, she was capable of a good result. She would also have the opportunity to meet her brother living in the United States after several years (he even volunteered as a ‘track walker’ to have the opportunity to contact his sister). Unfortunately, she did not get this chance.

It is worth mentioning here that while preparing for the games, she was already the mother of two daughters. In 1956, she married Robert Kurkowiak, an architect engineer, a competitor of WKS Legia. In 1957, she gave birth to her daughter Barbara, in 1958 – Elżbieta (and later Anna – 1967 and Maria – 1969).

The desire to ski the Olympic course from Squaw Valley was fulfilled almost thirty years later when, being privately in the United States, she visited this place…

Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak’s skiing career lasted long, even for those times. Her favorite discipline was primarily downhill, because speed always fascinated her (although she achieved great success in slalom and presented impeccable technique). “Often during a descent, I repeated in my mind: faster, faster! At the end of my adventure with competitive sports, sometimes funny situations occurred. After all, I was competing with much younger competitors. Once, one of them asked: Basia, how old are you actually? Without hesitation, I replied: 41. And she said: Oh dear, you’re already so old and still skiing? – recalls Mrs. Barbara laughing. “Those were wonderful years, fantastic people. Some of us have traveled around the world, some of us have already passed away, like Włodek Czarniak. He was so cheerful, a bit crazy, but very intelligent, sensitive. We liked each other very much… Well, we experienced a lot thanks to skiing, we have a lot to remember, our friendships with Marysia Szatkowska or Marysia Kowalska have survived…

After ending her adventure with competitive skiing, she devoted many years to coaching (she graduated from coaching studies at the University of Physical Education in Krakow). “It was the second half of my skiing life, the transition from the competitive stage to coaching. It started with working, for example, with a group of 30 children from Primary School No. 3 on Skibówki, which was cared for by “Start”, but from this, 10 people remained, forming the core of the group, the most talented, those who liked skiing and mountains the most. Some resigned due to injuries, others were a bit too lazy, too weak. After all, it was hard work for them. Training regardless of the weather, in spring or autumn, looking for snow in the Świnica Kettle or at Morskie Oko… The children bravely went into the high mountains, and after all, they had exhausting training afterward. In the summer, we had sports camps by the lakes. I tried to give them more than just good training. I taught them to notice the beauty of nature, mountains, or lakes, in the sun, in the fog… but also – another person… During trips, I taught them about the world, for example, when we were in the Caucasus, they got to know the mountains and the people living there, they learned by heart the names of the peaks visible from the cable car to Elbrus. I always paid a lot of attention to their progress at school. I worked the longest with three age groups: 1957 and younger, 1972 and 1979. Today my pupils are already adults… I remember them very warmly, we still like each other…

Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak is a person extremely sensitive to the beauty of the mountains, to other people, to the surrounding reality. The expression of these experiences is undoubtedly the poems she writes, which began to be created when she was still a teenage girl. She also successfully attempted writing prose. In 1965, she participated in a competition for Olympic memories organized by the Polish Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Culture and Art. The jury, chaired by Stanisław Ryszard Dobrowolski, honored her work “Giant Slalom” with the first prize.

However, Barbara remained faithful to poetry, mountains, and skiing. This year marks exactly fifty years since her debut on the ski slopes. Half a century ago, she competed for the first time in the Cableway Cup competitions. So she started again now. In this way, she wanted to close her adventure with skiing. She competed in a group together with current competitors. She reached the finish line… This does not mean a definitive farewell to skiing, it was rather symbolic. Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak cannot imagine life without mountains and skiing…

Barbara Grocholska-Kurkowiak in the Oral History Archive
My Kasprowy – interview by Bartek Solik
August 1944.
Our Kasprowy

Rolly Marchi “Quando parlai di alpinismo con il Papa” -“il Giornale” April 5, 2005