Ewa Swoboda

Ewa Nikola Swoboda (; born 26 July 1997) is a Polish track and field sprinter who specialises in the short sprints. She is a World Indoor Championships silver medallist, three-time European Championships silver medallist, European Indoor Championships gold and two-time silver medallist, and European Games gold and silver medallist. Swoboda is a two-time Olympian and competed for Poland at the 2016 and 2024 Summer Olympics.

Swoboda is also a two-time European U23 champion, World Junior Championships silver medallist and European junior champion. At age 17, she was a finalist in the 60 metres in her senior debut at the 2015 European Indoor Championships and won the gold medal in the 100 metres at the 2015 European Junior Championships, before taking the silver medal at the 2016 World Junior Championships in the same event. She won the 100 metres event at the European U23 Championships in 2017 and 2019. Swoboda holds the world junior record of 7.07 seconds and the Polish record of 6.98 seconds in the 60 metres. She is a multiple medallist of national outdoor and indoor championships.

Life and career Career beginnings Swoboda started competing in athletics from a young age and after joining the UKS Czwórka Żory athletics club, she began training under her coach Iwona Krupa. She won the Polish youth titles in the 100 metres in 2011 and 2012. The following year she won the national indoor junior 200 metres race.

Her international debut came at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics where she placed fourth in the girls' 100 m with a run of 11.61 seconds; finishing as the best European in the race. Following the event, she ran a personal best and set a new Polish junior record of 11.54 seconds in the 100 m at the Polish Youth Olympic Days, where she completed a sprint double.

At the start of 2014, Swoboda claimed the Polish indoor junior title in the 60 metres. At the European Youth Olympic Trials in Baku, she won the 100 m and was runner-up in the 200 m. However, she was disqualified in the 100 m final for a false start in the midst of crowd noise.

Senior career Swoboda won her first senior national title at the 2015 Polish Indoor Championships and she also set a 60 metres European junior record of 7.21 seconds during the competition, which was also a world best for a seventeen-year-old. This gained her selection for the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships – her first senior appearance for Poland. Still aged seventeen, she made the final of the 60 m and ran another personal best of 7.20 seconds, improving her European junior record by 0.01 seconds. This was the joint fastest time achieved by a Polish woman in the competition's history – matching that of Irena Szewińska and Daria Korczyńska (both of whom were medallists). Swoboda competed in the 100 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she reached the semifinals.

In March 2018 it was announced that Swoboda would be upgraded to silver medalist at the 2017 European Indoor Championship, after Ukraine's Olesya Povh's was disqualified for the use of unauthorized substances.

She was unable to participate at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń after testing positive to COVID-19 shortly before the start of the championships. Swoboda also did not compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to injury.

On 11 February 2022, she broke the Polish national record in the 60 meters twice at the Orlen Cup meeting in Łódź and set a new one by achieving 7.00 seconds. On 5 March, she broke the record again at the Polish Indoor Championships in Toruń with a time of 6.99 seconds, which was the tenth best result in the history of the competition.

She placed fourth at the 2022 World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade in a time of 7.04 seconds. The same time was measured for the fifth and sixth woman while Swoboda lost the bronze medal by 0.002 s.

At the Diamond League meeting at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on 16 July 2023, she ran her first sub-11 second 100 m, as she placed third in a personal best of 10.94 seconds, just 0.01 adrift of Ewa Kasprzyk's Polish national record set in 1986.

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships she claimed sixth place in the Women's 100 metres achieving 10.97 seconds, the fastest result by a European woman.

In March 2024, Swoboda participated in the women's 60 meters at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow. In the semifinals, she improved her personal best record and set a new national record by achieving 6.98 seconds. In the final, she won the silver medal by finishing in a time of 7.00 seconds, thus claiming her first medal at the World Indoor Championships event.

In June 2024, Swoboda won a silver medal in the women's 100 meters event at the European Championships in Rome by achieving 11.03 seconds losing only to Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain. At the 2024 Summer Olympics, she reached the semifinals in the 100 meters event, but failed to make the final after falling short of 0.01 seconds to qualify.

In August 2026, Swoboda participated in the women's 100 meters event at the European Championships in Birmingham winning her second consecutive silver medal at the event, and her third silver medal overall at the European Championships. She recorded 11.02 seconds behind Britain's Amy Hunt (11.00).

Personal life She was in a relationship with Polish shot putter Konrad Bukowiecki. As of 2023, she was in a relationship with Polish athlete Krzysztof Kiljan. In one of her interviews, she admitted that in the past she was the target of hate speech and at one point started thinking about quitting the sport. She is a tattoo enthusiast. Her tattoos include a rose, cat and an inscription "Mom and dad, I love you" written in English.

Achievements Personal bests 100 metres – 10.94 (+0.2 m/s Diamond League - Chorzów 2023) 100 metres U20 – 11.12 (+0.9 m/s Bydgoszcz 2016) 100 metres U18 – 11.30 (0.0 m/s Nanjing 2014) 200 metres – 23.79 (+0.3 m/s) (Linz 2018) Indoor 60 metres – 6.98 (Glasgow 2024) 60 metres U20 – 7.07 (Toruń 2016) 200 metres – 24.55 (Spała 2014)

International competitions

1Did not finish in the final 2Disqualified in the final

National titles Polish Athletics Championships 100 metres (8): 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024 4 × 100 m relay (1): 2020 Polish Indoor Athletics Championships 60 metres (8): 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Honours and accolades Medal of the 100th Anniversary of Regaining Independence (2019) Barbie Role Model doll created by Mattel (2024)