Maria Żodzik
Maria Żodzik is a high jumper. She was the national champion of Belarus in 2020. Having Polish grandparents, she was granted Polish citizenship in 2024 and won the silver medal at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, having previously also represented Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Early life
Źodzik grew up in the Belarusian town of Baranowicze. Her mother had been a high jumper and her father a distance runner, but she initially started out as a swimmer before transitioning to athletics. In the high jump she had cleared a height of 1.77m by age of 16 years-old, before hamstring and sciatic injuries ruled her out of competing for almost three years.Career
Źodzik won the high jump at the Belarusian national championships in 2020. She was named to the Belarusian team for the delayed 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. However, she was not permitted to compete as she was ruled as not meeting the minimum testing requirements of the Anti-Doping Rules for her country by the Athletics Integrity Unit.Switch to Poland; Olympic debut
She moved to Poland in 2022, and became based at Białystok, training under coach Robert Nazarkiewicz at the Podlasie Białystok club. She jumped a personal best 1.97 metres at the Polish Indoor Championships in Toruń on 17 February 2024.In March 2024, she was granted Polish citizenship. She competed for Poland in the high jump at the 2024 Paris Olympics but had a best clearance of only 1.83 metres and did not proceed from the semi-final.
2025: World Championships silver medalist
She jumped 1.96 metres to finish third on countback at Mutaz Barshim's What Gravity Challenge in Doha, Qatar on 10 May 2025, with the same height as Australia’s Eleanor Patterson, who claimed second. She placed third in Stockholm at the 2025 BAUHAUS-galan event, part of the 2025 Diamond League, in June 2025. She was runner-up to Yaroslava Mahuchikh whilst competing for Poland at the 2025 European Athletics Team Championships First Division in Madrid, on 29 June 2025, after jumping 1.97 metres. With Nicola Olyslagers and Christina Honsel, she shared the win with 1.91 metres at the 2025 Athletissima in wet conditions in Lausanne.She won the silver medal at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2025, clearing a personal best height of 2.00 metres.