President of the Polish Olympic Committee

Andrzej Kraśnicki

Andrzej Kraśnicki has served as President of the Polish Olympic Committee since 2010, after being re-elected almost unanimously in 2013 and 2017. He has also served as President of the Handball Association in Poland since 2006, and was President of the Polish Sport Confederation in 2003-2005. Andrzej Kraśnicki was also a member of the Committee of the National Celebration of the Centennial of the Republic of Poland Regaining its Independence under the patronage of President Andrzej Duda.

Andrzej Kraśnicki has sat on the Executive Committee of the Association of European Olympic Committees (EOC) since 2013, and was re-elected for a third term in 2017. The EOC appointed him as one of the six European representatives on the Executive Council of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). He is a member and expert of many international commissions in the International Olympic Movement, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sustainability and Legacy Commission (2014), the IOC Athletes’ Entourage Commission, the EOC Coordination Commission for the Second Edition of the European Games in Minsk (2019), the EOC Gender Equality in Sport Commission, and is the EOC Executive Committee Liaison Member to the EOC Environment and Sport for All Commission.

In recognition of his extremely senior position in the International Olympic Movement, Andrzej Kraśnicki was unanimously elected coordinator of the Central and South East Europe National Olympic Committees (CSEENOC) Working Group in 2018. The CSEENOC comprises 18 countries. The group promotes the interests of the National Olympic Committees of the region and Europe generally. He organized its high-profile meeting in Poland in 2019.

Andrzej Kraśnicki has served as President of the Polish Olympic Team for the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games, the European Games, and many other events organized under the patronage of the International Olympic Movement, on several occasions. He helped initiate and actively promote the 3rd European Games Krakow and Malopolska 2023, led numerous discussions and made several arrangements with respect to this initiative at the national level and within the International Olympic Movement. He has promoted international cooperation in sport, initiated partnership agreements with National Olympic Committees, and has animated and helped initiate the promotion of Polish representatives in international sports organizations. Through his efforts and interventions many Poles have occupied the most senior positions in international sport, including the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International University Sports Federation (FISU), the European Fair Play Movement (EFPM), the EOC, the International Handball Federation (IHF), European Handball Federation (EHF), and many others.

He actively participates in events that promote national sport, and supports Polish Sports Unions in organizing world-class international sports events in Poland. He assists in arranging for the IOC President to visit Poland and meet with Polish sports figures. It was on Andrzej Kraśnicki’s initiative that the University of Gdansk conferred an honorary doctorate on the IOC President in recognition of his contribution to the development of the International Olympic Movement and his activities on behalf of human rights and world peace.

Andrzej Kraśnicki helps initiate events to promote Poland abroad through culture and art, organizes Polish Days and Polish Houses during the Olympic Games and European Games, promotes artists and creators who dedicate their work to sport, arranges for works by outstanding Polish sculptors, painters and artists to be displayed in the Olympic Center, and helps organize classical music concerts to promote the bond between art and sport.

Thanks to the efforts of Andrzej Kraśnicki, a cooperation agreement was signed with the city of Takasaki (Japan) and the Japanese Olympic Committee to enable Polish athletes to train and prepare camps for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020.

Andrzej Kraśnicki promotes the activities of the POC through meetings and bilateral agreements with National Olympic Committees in Europe and around the world. He is a member of many international bodies that promote social initiatives to promote the POC in Poland and throughout the world. He has been an honorary member of the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS), President of the Polish Olympic Foundation, Chairman of the Center for Olympic Education Fund, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the PGNIG SuperLiga Professional Men’s Handball League (2016-2018), and a member of the National Council for Environmental Protection (2010-2016).

Andrzej Kraśnicki has received awards from many National Olympic Committees and numerous Polish and international organizations, including Eco-Ambassador (Embassy of France), the “Golden Mangosteen” Friendship of Nations Award (Ukraine), “Victoria Europae 2019” (European Business Club), the Leader of Organic Work – “Honorary Hippolyte” Statuette (Hippolyte Brick Society, Poznan), the “White Eagle” Emblem (White Eagle Foundation), the “Leader of Vocation” award (from a chapter of the Leader of Vocation program), and Honorary Sports Manager of the Polish Confederation of Sports Managers.

Finally, Andrzej Kraśnicki holds an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Physical Education in Wroclaw in recognition of his enormous contribution to the Polish and International Olympic Movement, for the development of fair competition in sport, and for his wonderful personality (2019). Andrzej Kraśnicki holds the title of Professor Honoris Causa from the Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management University.

For his efforts on behalf of sport, the Polish government has honored Andrzej Kraśnicki with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2015) and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2006).