PZLA — Polski Związek Lekkiej Atletyki

What it is

Polski Związek Lekkiej Atletyki governs athletics in Poland, a major athletics power. Sebastian Chmara was elected president on 30 November 2024 for a four-year term. The national championships reached their 102nd edition in 2026; the men's championships have run since 1920.^[1] [2]

How the national team is selected

Poland runs two parallel numeric systems, and both are published.

The standing squad. A regulation governs appointment to the national squad on the basis of published age-graded performance norms — a full table by sex and age band — with the roster approved by the federation board and revised quarterly. The 2026 rosters are published with names, dates of birth and clubs: 351 athletes in the national squad and 1,069 in the B squad.^[3] [4]

One provision is directly useful as evidence: among an athlete's listed rights is to "receive a certificate from the federation of membership of the National Squad." That is a federation-issued document attesting national-squad status on request.^[3]

Per-championship criteria. For each major championship the federation publishes two parallel standards per event — the international entry standard and a separate, generally harder national standard — with stated qualifying windows and venue-certification requirements, and a published tie-break order. The final line is explicit: the decision to select rests with the federation board on the application of its training team.^[5]

Sporting classes

Poland operates a formal athlete classification ladder — klasy sportowe, running from the international master class down through master, first, second and third — and the federation publishes the qualifying norms, most recently updated in December 2025. Norms count only for athletes holding a valid federation licence, and the top class may be earned only at designated events subject to federation verification. More on how these systems work.^[6]