Damian Waniczek

	Damian Waniczek
	; Damian Waniczek at the EM 2010
nation	Poland
birthday	18th February 1981
place of birth	Szczyrk
size	174 cm
Weight	66 kg
Career
discipline	Two-seater, single-seater
society	LKS Jastrząb Szczyrk
status	active
Medal table
Natural Track Luge World Championships
European Natural Track Luge Championships
	Placements in the Natural Track Luge World Cup
World Cup victories	10
Overall World Cup ES	14. ( 2008/2009 )
Overall World Cup DS	01. ( 2001/2002 )
	last change: March 5, 2012

Damian Waniczek (born February 18, 1981 in Szczyrk ) is a Polish natural track luge . He is one of the strongest in his country in both single and double-seaters and, together with Andrzej Laszczak, is one of the most internationally successful double-seaters. Laszczak and Waniczek won the overall World Cup in the 2001/2002 season , they have won ten World Cup races so far , won the silver medal at the 2010 European Championship and another five bronze medals at World and European Championships . Damian Waniczek does not achieve these results in the single-seater, but since 2000 he has been the most successful Pole in the overall World Cup in eight seasons. By 2011 he won a total of 18 Polish championship titles , 6 of them in the singles and 12 in the doubles.

Career

Damian Waniczek has been taking part in natural luge competitions since 1992. From 1996 to 2000 he competed in three Junior European Championships , where his best results were fifth place in the doubles together with Andrzej Laszczak in his hometown of Szczyrk in 1996 and 22nd place in the singles in 2000 in Umhausen . At the end of the 1990s, he competed in his first World Cup races , both in the single-seater and, together with the two-year-old Waldemar Siąkała, in the doubles. Since the 1999/2000 season is Damian Waniczek integral part of Polish World Cup team and counts both in single-seaters as well in doubles - since 1999/2000 with his new partner Andrzej Laszczak - the most successful of Natural Track lugers his country. In the single-seater he mostly achieved places around 20th in the World Cup up to the 2002/2003 season and was among the top 25 in the overall World Cup three times, two of them as the best Pole. In the two-seater, the duo Laszczak / Waniczek quickly made contact with the world's best. Andrzej Laszczak, who is five years older than him , was able to fall back on several years of World Cup experience together with Marcin Pawlus . After Damian Waniczek and Andrzej Laszczak were once among the top five in the first three World Cup races of the 1999/2000 season, they achieved their first major success at the World Championships at the end of January 2000 in Olang . There they won the bronze medal behind the Italians Armin and David Mair and the Austrians Reinhard Beer and Herbert Kögl and thus the first medal for Poland at the world championships that have been held since 1979. Three weeks later the first podium followed in the World Cup when they reached third place on February 20, 2000 in Železniki . In the World Cup, this was the second podium for Poland, after the doubles Krzysztof Niewiadomski and Michał Andrzejewski had also achieved third place six years earlier . In the overall World Cup, Laszczak / Waniczek finished fourth in their first season together, just ahead of Russians Denis Alimow and Roman Molwistow . In addition, they became Polish doubles champions for the first time in 2000 and have been able to defend this title every year so far, making them Polish doubles champions twelve times by 2011.

The 2000/2001 season was slightly worse than the previous year . There were no podium places, their best World Cup result was fourth place in Lüsen and they dropped to sixth place in the overall standings. At the 2001 World Championships in Stein an der Enns , they finished fourth, just under a second behind third-placed Peter Lechner and Peter Braunegger . In the team competition, which was held for the first time, the Polish team, to which Magdalena Hula belonged alongside Damian Waniczek and Andrzej Lasczak , came in fourth and - after the failure of the Austria I team - last place. Already in the next winter things went uphill again and Laszczak / Waniczek celebrated their first victory and at the same time the first ever World Cup victory for Poland in the first World Cup race of the 2001/2002 season in Olang. This was followed by a second place in the second race in Olang and a third place in the parallel competition in Triesenberg , only in Umhausen they did not come on the podium as fifth. With two further victories in the last two World Cup races in Hüttau and Železniki , the Poles secured the overall World Cup victory for the first and so far only time with a lead of 55 points over the Austrians Beer / Kögl. Laszczak / Waniczek won the bronze medal in a close decision at the 2002 European Championship in Frantschach-Sankt Gertraud , which was held a week after the World Cup final , 17 hundredths of a second behind the winners Wolfgang and Andreas Schopf and only six hundredths of a second behind the second-placed Reinhard Beer and Herbert Kögl. In the single-seater, Damian Waniczek did not start the second run after finishing 27th in the first run. After Damian Waniczek had been the Polish doubles champion in the last two years, he also won the single-seater title for the first time in 2002 and was able to defend it successfully until 2006. After he was beaten by Adam Jędrzejko in 2007 , he won the Polish single-seater championship title for the sixth and last time in 2008.

In the World Cup, the 2002/2003 season began as successfully for Damian Waniczek and Andrzej Laszczak as the last ended. They won the first two races in Völs and Umhausen, came second in Moscow and were once again at the top of the podium in the fourth race of the season in Hüttau, giving them a lead of 60 points over the Russians Pawel Porschnew and Iwan Lasarew in the interim standings had. But in the last two races the Poles only came fourth, while the Russians won once and came second once and thus prevented the Poles from winning again overall World Cup; Laszczak / Waniczek finished second overall, ten points behind. At the 2003 World Cup in Železniki, they missed the medal ranks by 27 hundredths of a second and finished fourth, just like two years ago. Damian Waniczek was the only Pole to start in the single-seater competition and came in 24th out of 48 tobogganers. In the 2003/2004 season , Damian Waniczek and Andrzej Laszczak had little to do with the decision in the overall doubles World Cup from the start. In the first four races they only finished on the podium once, finishing second in Grande Prairie . They won the fifth World Cup race, the parallel competition in Triesenberg , but in the end they did not get past fourth place in the overall World Cup. At the 2004 European Championships in Hüttau they only finished seventh, Damian Waniczek finished 31st in the single-seater. The next season did not begin as desired with two fifth places in Longiarü and Unterammergau . After that, Laszczak / Waniczek finished all four World Cup races on the podium, won twice in Oberperfuss and Latzfons and thus achieved second place in the overall World Cup, 60 points behind Beer / Kögl and ten points ahead of Porschnew / Lasarew. After two fourth places at the last two World Championships, Laszczak / Waniczek won the bronze medal again at the 2005 World Championships in Latsch - as they had five years before - and were only two hundredths of a second behind the second-placed Armin Mair and Johannes Hofer . In the team competition, the Polish team, consisting of Damian Waniczek, Andrzej Laszczak and Karolina Waniczek , finished fourth, just one point behind Team Italy I. Laszczak / Waniczek achieved the fastest time in the two-seater. In the single-seater, Damian Waniczek came in 19th as the best of the three Poles. In the World Cup his results in the single-seater improved noticeably and in the winter of 2003/2004 he finished 14th in Moscow for the first time among the 15 fastest in a World Cup race. He succeeded twice in the 2004/2005 season, making him 16th as the best Pole in the overall single-seater World Cup in both years.

In the doubles, victory in the opening race of the 2005/2006 season in Longiarü was the last of the successful Polish duo in the World Cup. In the second half of the season they made it onto the podium twice, third in Grande Prairie and second in Oberperfuss, but fell back to fourth place in the overall World Cup. The 2006/2007 season was unusually bad . For the first time in six years, they did not finish in the top three in any World Cup race and, like six years earlier, only finished sixth in the overall World Cup. In return, Damian Waniczek achieved his best single-seater World Cup result with 13th place in Umhausen. At the 2006 European Championships in Umhausen Laszczak / Waniczek achieved their worst career result with ninth place, but at the 2007 World Championships in Grande Prairie they were able to improve to fourth place. In addition, they finished there together with Kinga Gawlas and Adam Jędrzejko fifth place in the team competition. In the single seater, Damian Waniczek came 26th at the EM 2006; at the 2007 World Cup he was not at the start. In the 2007/2008 season , the Laszczak / Waniczek doubles again achieved two second places in Moos in Passeier and Latsch. With two more top 5 results, they finished third in the overall World Cup behind the Italians Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara , who won all six races of the season, and the Russians Porschnew / Lasarew. At the European Championships in Olang in 2008 , however, they only finished seventh in the doubles, while Damian Waniczek achieved twelfth place in the single-seater, which is his personal best at world and European championships.

In the 2008/2009 season , Damian Waniczek achieved his best single-seater results in the World Cup. Eleventh place in Deutschnofen was his best result in a World Cup race and with 14th place he achieved his best result in the overall classification. In no World Cup race of the season he was worse than 18. In doubles, two third places were Damian Waniczek and Andrzej Laszczak's best World Cup results in the seasons 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 and in both years they came up with two more top 5 results fourth place in the overall World Cup. At the 2009 World Championships in Moos in Passeier, they won the bronze medal in doubles for the third time after 2000 and 2005. In addition, together with Natalia Waniczek and Adam Jędrzejko, they finished fifth in the team competition and Damian Waniczek took 21st place in the single-seater. After their overall World Cup victory, the Poles achieved their greatest success so far at the 2010 European Championships in St. Sebastian . After they had already achieved third place four times and fourth place in international championships, Andrzej Laszczak and Damian Waniczek won the European Championship 2010 with the second fastest running time and 1.52 seconds behind the Italians Patrick Pigneter and Florian Clara and a lead of 29 hundredths of a second over the Russians Alexander Jegorow and Pjotr Popow the silver medal in the two-seater. In addition, they were sixth in the team competition with Natalia Waniczek and Adam Jędrzejko; Damian Waniczek finished 22nd in the single-seater.

In the first two World Cup races of the 2010/2011 season , Waniczek only started in a single-seater, only in the third race did the duo Laszczak / Waniczek start again in a two-seater. With ninth place in Gsies , however, they started the season very badly. The Polish duo was able to improve again up to the 2011 World Cup in Umhausen and win the bronze medal in the doubles for the fourth time. In the team competition, they finished eighth among nine teams together with the single-seaters Wioletta Ryś and Adam Jędrzejko; Waniczek was 23rd in the single-seater. In the World Cup, however, the duo Laszczak / Waniczek failed to take the podium for the first time since the 2000/2001 season. They fell back to eighth place in the overall World Cup. In the 2011/2012 World Cup season they did not achieve a podium position either, but with four top 5 results Laszczak / Waniczek were able to improve to fifth in the overall two-seater World Cup. As in the previous year, Damian Waniczek usually placed 20th in the singles, making him 20th in the overall World Cup. At the 2012 European Championships in Nowouralsk, Waniczek was 23rd in the single-seater, while the duo Laszczak / Waniczek took fifth place in the double-seater and eighth place in the team competition in a mixed team with the two single-seater Adam Jędrzejko and the Slovenian Petra Dragičevič .

successes

Damian Waniczek (right) and Andrzej Laszczak during the doubles award ceremony of the 2010 European Championship

(if not stated otherwise, two-seater with Andrzej Laszczak)

World championships

Olang 2000 : 3rd two-seater
Stein an der Enns 2001 : 4th doubles, 4th team
Železniki 2003 : 24th singles, 4th doubles
Latsch 2005 : 19th singles, 3rd doubles, 4th team
Grande Prairie 2007 : 4th doubles, 5th team
Moos in Passeier 2009 : 21st singles, 3rd doubles, 6th team
Umhausen 2011 : 23rd singles, 3rd doubles, 8th team

European championships

Frantschach 2002 : 3rd two-seater
Hüttau 2004 : 31st singles, 7th doubles
Umhausen 2006 : 26th single-seater, 9th double-seater
Olang 2008 : 12th singles, 7th doubles
St. Sebastian 2010 : 22nd singles, 2nd doubles, 6th team
Nowouralsk 2012 : 24th singles, 5th doubles, 8th team

Junior European Championships

Szczyrk 1996 : 32nd singles, 5th doubles
Feld am See 1998 : 29th single, 12th double (with Michał Galas)
Umhausen 2000 : 22nd single-seater

World cup

Overall World Cup victory in doubles in the 2001/2002 season

2nd place overall in the two-seater World Cup in the seasons 2002/2003 and 2004/2005

3rd place overall in the two-seater World Cup in the 2007/2008 season

25 podium places, including 10 wins:

date	place	country	discipline
December 14, 2001	Olang	Italy	Two-seater
January 20, 2002	Huettau	Austria	Two-seater
January 27, 2002	Železniki	Slovenia	Two-seater
December 22, 2002	Völs	Italy	Two-seater
January 12, 2003	Umhausen	Austria	Two-seater
January 26, 2003	Huettau	Austria	Two-seater
February 14, 2004	Triesenberg	Liechtenstein	Two-seater
January 14, 2005	Oberperfuss	Austria	Two-seater
January 23, 2005	Latzfons	Italy	Two-seater
December 11, 2005	Longiarü	Italy	Two-seater

Polish championships

Twelve times Polish champion in doubles (2000 to 2011)
Six times Polish champion in single seater (2002 to 2006 and 2008)

Web links

Commons : Damian Waniczek - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Damian Waniczek in the database of the International Luge Federation

personal data
SURNAME	Waniczek, Damian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Polish natural track toboggan runner
DATE OF BIRTH	18th February 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH	Szczyrk , Poland