Franciszek Gąsienica Groń

Franciszek Gąsienica Gron ( born September 30, 1931 in Zakopane ) is a former Polish Nordic skier and current coach.

He attended secondary school in Zakopane and graduated in 1952 from high school in Gliwice. Later he studied at the Sport University of Breslau. At the beginning of his athletic career, he tried out different sports. Having no such promotion was to be expected by the officer school, he asked for his dismissal. Here he met Marian Woyny - Orlewicza which brought him to the ski jumping.

In 1956 Gąsienica Gron first time at the Olympic Winter Games, which took place in Cortina d' Ampezzo. For the Polish Olympic team, he had a late qualified by winning a competition in combination Les Brassus. In Cortina, he showed the combination of jumping a solid performance: After a fall and two good jumps, he finished tenth. During the following long run he stayed consistently on the seventh rank, but otherwise hardly stepped in appearance. Nevertheless he reached in the final standings to third place with just a few seconds behind the Second Bengt Eriksson. Because of this surprising result Gąsienica Gron was named after the competition in the "Artist of the combination of mathematics "; the bronze medal was for the novice and outsider " a great honor ". In addition Gąsienica Gron was the first Pole, who a medal in a Nordic discipline won at the Olympic Winter Games and the only athlete of his country, who came in the top three at the Games in Cortina.

Gąsienica Gron was 1958 Polish Champion in Nordic Combined. 1956, 1957 and 1959 he was runner-up. 1957 also in ski jumping.

From 1965 he was active as a coach in the Nordic combined and trained over 40 Polish Champion in the Nordic combinations, jumping, cross country and season.