Ministry of Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Poland

On April 10, 2010, Lech Kaczyński, President of the Republic of Poland, his wife, and 94 representatives of Poland's elites died in a plane crash near Smolensk. Poland went into mourning. Almost all sports events in the country have been called off until Friday, April 16, in connection with the official seven day mourning period.

There are only two exceptions. On April 11^th, i.e. on Sunday, the World U-18 Hockey Championship (Division 1) began in Krynica-Zdrój. Also on Sunday, in Krosno, the national junior women's volleyball team will complete its performance at the qualification tournament for the European Championship.

The President, his wife, as well as the politicians, clergymen, war veterans and representatives of Katyń Families who were on board of the government Tu-154M airplane were on their way to take part in the commemoration of the 70^th anniversary of the Katyń massacre. The plane crashed at 8.56 during approach in difficult weather conditions, a few hundred metres away from the runway of the Severnyi military airport.

The victims included people associated with sports.

Piotr Nurowski, the eleventh president of the National Olympic Committee of Poland, joined the state delegation to Smolensk to take part in the commemoration of the victims of the Katyń massacre, where Stalin's murderers killed 263 athletes and sport activists, including eight Olympic athletes.

Between 1973 and 1980, Piotr Nurowski was president of the Polish Athletics Federation. When elected, he was 28 and was the world's youngest president of a national sports federation at that time.

After a period of activity in the youth movement, he joined the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was first secretary of the Polish embassy in Moscow until 1984; next, he worked for two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before serving as counsellor of the embassy in Rabat, Morocco between 1986 and 1991.

In 1992, Piotr Nurowski worked on the creation and development of the Polsat satellite TV station. He was a sports fan all his life. While still in high school in Sandomierz, he was a speaker at the local stadium; upon graduating from university, he won the Polish Radio's contest for the sports commentator of the year.

In 2005, he became president of the National Olympic Committee of Poland. In 2009, he was elected for another four-year term.

Athletes, sports officials and sports fans will remember Piotr Nurowski as a man passionate about sport and an effective manager. In 2010, he was re-elected as member of the Executive Committee of the European Olympic Committees and was entrusted for the second time with the role of chairman of the Communication Commission.

Piotr Nurowski was 64 years old.

Father Józef Joniec, Piarist, held many responsible posts, including that of chaplain of children and youth, parish priest, custodian of the Sanctuary of Mother of God and Teacher of Youth, rector of the Piarist Order College in Warsaw and director of the Parafiada Centre and the Stanisław Konarski Piarist Educational Centre.

Most notably, father Józef Joniec was the founder of the Parafiada (Parish-lympic) Programme (1988), which combines three elements: sport, culture and religion. Thanks to him, the Parafiada movement has become an important component of the educational process in our country and has spread to many other European countries, particularly east of Poland. He was the founder and organizer of the annual International Parafiada Games for Children and Youth, in which over three thousand children and youths, teachers, pedagogues, clergymen, parents and volunteers participated each year.

Father Józef Joniec was a humble and very hard-working priest who gave every day of his life to fulfilling the Order's mission by serving children and youth and tending to their harmonious physical, cultural and religious development.

A spiritual guide of great virtue, a man with a big heart and of exceptional wisdom has been gathered to his Father. The Church, the Piarist Order, Polish sport and, most importantly, children and youth, have all suffered a huge loss. We lost an exceptional person, a passionate priest, great community worker and a friend.

Józef Joniec was 51 years old.

Adam Giersz, Minister of Sport and Tourism, took part in the Military Sports Gala 2009, held on March 31, 2010. The event, which summed up the sports activities of 2009 in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland, was also attended by Bogdan Klich, Minister of National Defence, general Franciszek Gągor, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Piotr Nurowski, president of the Polish Olympic Committee, as well as by the nominated athletes, coaches, sports activists and representatives of sports associations.

The Olympic Gala held in Warsaw on March 27 officially wrapped up the Polish Team's performance at the 21 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.  

Mr Paulo Gomes, Head of the European Council's Standing Committee for the European Convention on  Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches (T-RV), visited the Ministry of Sports and Tourism on March 22, 2010.

This information was announced jointly by the representatives of the Messe Berlin and the Polish Tourist Organization during the press conference which took place soon after the ceremony of signing the agreement between these two organizations.

The Ministry of Sport and Tourism of the Republic of Poland has the pleasure to inform you that the eChallenges e-2010 Conference takes place in the beautiful city of Warsaw, coinciding with Chopin's 200th Anniversary. This is the twentieth in a series of Annual Conferences supported by the European Commission, which regularly attracts over 650 delegates from leading commercial, government and research organisations around the world to share knowledge and experience, lessons learnt and good practice in the areas of eInfrastructures, ICT for Networked Enterprise & RFID, eGovernment & eDemocracy, eHealth, Collaborative Working Environments, Living Labs, Digital Libraries and Cultural Heritage, Technology Enhanced Learning, Intelligent Content & Semantics, High Performance Computing Applications, Security and Identity Management and Mobility.