Once, during a championship in Stargard Szczeciński, a huge guy approached me – recalls Dawid. – He was laughing when he asked me “What is this competition? I could beat all of you easy, I never lost an armfight”. Somebody told him to try and fight me. He just laughed, I weighed about 66kg back then, and he was twice that easily. But he tried anyway, and he failed very quickly. He just left after that, not even looking back.

Who is Dawid Bartosiewicz? An economist by education, when he was a little boy, he wanted to be … someone famous.

A musician, maybe some other type of artist, but never a policeman, a fireman – says Dawid. My whole life I’ve been interested in sports. Since I was little I used to jump around, throw rocks, play ball – I was one of the best in my neighborhood, and PT classes were also no problem for me.

He found armwrestling when he was in prep school.

Obviously it was just on a school level, we wrestled between schoolmates, but even back then I was the best in my school. I knew you had to “hook” when wrestling, I had that instinct in me.

He got seriously drawn into armwrestling thanks to Artur Głowiński, top Polish armwrestler.

Artur is my distant relative, and once during a family meeting we decided to arm wrestle. It was him who got me into training. First me and my brother wrestled on a shoe cabinet, then we’ve made ourselves a real table. We made our own pulleys, prayer bench, dumbbels. It wasn’t about the gear, it was about the drive. Even later in life, when I was working in my brother’s construction company, every time I was at a scaffolding I did pullups, hangs, I climbed and did other evolutions. I even worked out in a bus, on the hand rails. It’s in my nature.

He started training for real in January2004.

In April I was already at my first competition – Polish Championships. And BANG! I won 1^st place in juniors in right hand. Since then I went to many local and national events, won many medals, usually placed in the first three, so I’ve caught the bug, the successes help with that, no doubt. Armwrestling gave me a thrill like no other sport, made my heart beat faster.

His first problems started with his first injuries.

I suffered a few breaks in a time of half a year. I broke my left arm in January, during a contest for the “Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy” charity, I made an error while blocking and broke my left elbow. In April I broke my right arm during Polish Championships, and then I broke it again in July.

Ever since then, whenever he hears even a slightest “click” in an opponent’s arm, he jumps.

Bad memories – laughs Dawid.

But despite all that, he still fights on. After resting his right arm for a month he went to the 3^rd edition of the Professional League – with his hand in screws. He won the League as an amateur, fighting pros. After three weeks he fought again, in the 4^th edition, where he broke his arm again fighting Tomek Szewczyk.

I also sprained my elbow, but I was so depressed that I paid no attention to it. One of the audience members fainted when he saw me break my arm, and cut his chin on a table edge when he fell. We rode in the ambulance together – him to get his chin stitched, me to get my arm in a cast, it was a real laugh.

Bartosiewicz got the feeling that he could be good at this, when he changed weight categories from 63 to 70 kg.

It was 2007, I won the Professional League in January in 63 kg, in April I entered the Polish Championships in 70kg. I beat everyone then, left and right, and the category was chock-full of the best fighters, I beat Daniel Gajda, which was something great, I became kind of famous …

Dawid Bartosiewicz has been training for 10 years now. How does he see himself from the perspective of time?

When I started armwrestling I had a crew of ten mates. In the beginning, they could all beat me, but after half a year of hard training the tables have turned. When I started training, I still wasn’t sure of my place in this sport. Years passed, and the more I won, the more I was sure that this is it. I became a vice-champion of the world, a real professional. In the past I haven’t treated my training very seriously. Today I have a diet, a training program, I analyze my shortcomings and work on them.

Dawid’s most important achievement is the silver medal of the World Championships 2013.

It was a very strong 75kg category, with many European and world champions. It was a hard medal to win.

What are the dreams of one of the best Polish armwrestlers? Signing a contract with a federation that would get him a number of fights a year and a fixed salary.

I wish to stay at the top. And I also wish for armwrestling to be in the media, to become a popular sport. I feel it’s still often treated as a joke sport, a country fair event. Every sportsperson wants their discipline to be respected.

When asked for advice to the beginners of the sport, Dawid has only one.

Determination. People often ask me how do I do it despite all the injuries, how do I go on. I usually tell them that besides drive, ambition and genetics the thing that drives us to the top is determination. A constant struggle with your weakness. It’s easy to be motivated when everything is going smooth. But when you can overcome hardships, real victories will come. Just be determined and push towards your goals.

Iza Małkowska