Katarzyna Jurkowska-Kowalska has just announced her retirement on Instagram. At 26, Jurkowska- Kowalska has been a staple on the Polish team since 2007, participated in multiple European and World Championships and represented Poland at the 2016 Olympic Games. Last fall, she helped Poland to qualify a team for the 2019 Worlds.

You would have expected Jurkowska-Kowalska to keep going at least until April, when the European Championships will be hosted in her home country for the first time since 1959. Even more so considering that Poland doesn’t quite have any new seniors that could challenge her scores. She had a decent chance at qualifying to the Tokyo Olympics via the all-around competition at the 2019 Worlds.

However, in a recent interview, she said that she was still undecided about staying in the sport as she couldn’t earn a living by competing and it was becoming too hard to combine gymnastics with a full-time job. In addition, she was thinking about having kids and deciding to keep going until 2020 would put a hold on that as well. Another contributing factor was likely the fact that her long-time coach Przemysław Lis was offered a job on Azerbaijan’s national team, so continuing the sport would mean a coaching change.

Anna Kosieradzka of Gimnastycy.pl translated Jurkowska-Kowalska’s Instagram announcement:

“This is probably one of the most important posts to ever appear on my fanpage . I don’t know how to put everything into words!!! There comes a time in an athlete’s career to close a chapter. This is the time where I step off the stage as a competitor. An accomplished one, who made it further than they ever thought they could. Achievements and successes are one side of the medal, but the road taken , the people met and trusted, the goals met – all of it is invaluable. This cannot be taken away, all these moments will stay with me forever. It would be hard to say that my adventure with sport is finished, because nothing ends, we open a new door and write another story, only in a different role this time”.

“There is one more thing that I want to share with you. Namely, my trainer got an offer for working with the National Team of Azerbaijan, for what I congratulate him very much. It is a great distinction and I am very happy that his achievements have been appreciated around the world… All the more because I can proudly say we build this together. It is thanks to you, Przemysław Lis, that I believed that Rio was attainable, and what’s even more beautiful, every time I doubted it, you were always by my side supporting me. I wish everyone such a relationship between the coach and the athlete. Obviously, it often wasn’t easy (though I laugh about it now) – but if you spend more time with someone than with your own husband, the stakes are high, and not everything goes our way, it is the way it is. Now, I only recall the good times, and that’s how I want to remember the 20 years of my career and the 16 years on the GAF National Team”.

“I would like to thank everyone involved in my story … It’s going to be hard to name everyone (I apologize if I omitted someone …). For starters, the people thanks to whom it all started: MY PARENTS Halina Jurkowska and Janusz Jurkowski, the ones who brought me to Wisła Kraków every day, they supported me from the start and raised me to be a good person… THANK YOU SO MUCH. Now I can not imagine anyone other than my husband Arkadiusz Arek Kowalski, he was always on the receiving end of all my emotions, and he was always there when I needed and supported me (only you know the whole truth from the inside, how much strength and heart it took me during these last years in the gym) Coaches – most importantly, as I already mentioned Przemysław Lis, you know that if it weren’t for you, my career would not be what it was and certainly not the last 6 years; also my first coaches, big words of appreciation and thank you because you made me fall in love with this beautiful sport and gave me the foundation of skills, thanks to which I was ready to accomplish great things when going to the Central Olympic Preparation Center… Beata Bodzoń and Valerij Kovalenko, thank you for every coach with whom I had the opportunity to train, each of you taught me something… Joanna Uracz, Nikolay Gryadovkin and others who are not on FB. Thank you TS Wisła Kraków Gymnastics section, you have been with me from the beginning of my career to the very end! Thank you to Sławomir Kaliszewski and Honorary President Ludwik Mięcie-Mikołajewicz. Thank you, girls!!! All the National Team, you created this atmosphere in which every trip turned into an amazing adventure, not only sports-wise. Thank you for your support and I keep my fingers crossed for you Marta Pihan-Kulesza, Paola Niepaulin, Gabriela Janik, Wiktoria Łopuszańska, Monika Frandofert, Joanna Litewka-Paprota, Alma Kuc. Thank you to all people with whom I had the opportunity to cooperate: Forever Living Products Poland, Viking Sport, In : Motion . Thank you to my fans, I know how little popular artistic gymnastics is (which I regret very much), but in spite of everything here was quite a bunch of people with me all these years. P.S. I promise to send all the autographs, just send me a reminder via PM. 😉 We’re start a new chapter, keep your fingers crossed for it to be as colorful as my sports career. All the best”.

Photo: Polska Press