Michał Winiarski was born in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He graduated from the School of Sports Championship in Spała. He studied at the Management and Administration College in Opole. On May 13, 2006 he married Dagmara (née Stęplewska). On November 28, 2006 (after a match of the World Championship with Russia) their son Oliwier was born. On March 13, 2014 his wife gave birth to their second son, named Antoni.
His first professional club was Chemik Bydgoszcz. With the team AZS Częstochowa, Winiarski was twice a bronze medalist in the Polish Championship (2003/2004, 2004/2005). He spent one season 2005/2006 as a player of BOT Skra Bełchatów and won the Polish Championship and Polish Cup with this team. In 2006-2009, he played for the Italian team Itas Diatec Trentino. With this team, he won the 2008-09 Indesit Champions League and was also awarded Best Blocker for his play. He has gold (2008) and silver (2009) medals from the Italian Championship. In 2009 he returned to the Polish team PGE Skra Bełchatów. They won the Polish Championship twice times in 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and a silver medal in 2011/2012. He has a silver medal from the Club World Championships in 2010. He won, with Bełchatów, the Polish Cup twice, in 2011 and 2012. In 2010, PGE Skra Bełchatów, with Winiarski, won the bronze medal in the CEV Champions League. They improved on this result in 2012, when they won the silver medal in the CEV Champions League after the match against Zenit Kazan at the Final Four in Łódź, Poland. The match ended controversially, because the judge didn't see the error of a Russian player and allowed the match to finish, despite the fact that the audience and the players saw the error on screen.[1] Michał Winiarski won the award for Best Receiver in the CEV Champions League 2011/2012. He played for Skra Bełchatów in Poland until May 2013, when he announced that he had signed a 2-year contract with a Russian Superleague club,[2] Fakel Novy Urengoy, but he only spent one season in Russia. On June 16, 2014, it was officially announced that Winiarski was returning to Bełchatów and had signed a two-year contract with PGE Skra Bełchatów.[3] On October 8, 2014 his team won ENEA Polish SuperCup 2014.[4] On February 7, 2016 he played with PGE Skra and won the 2016 Polish Cup after beating ZAKSA in the final.[5] In April 2016 he was a member of the same team which won a bronze medal in the 2015–16 PlusLiga championship.[6]
National team
In 2003, he captained the Polish team to the gold medal at the World Junior Championship. He has played for the Poland national men's volleyball team (team A) since 2004. He debuted as a national team player on January 7, 2004 in a match against Russia. In 2006, he took part in the World Championship, where the Polish team finished as runners-up. During the course of the Poland-Brazil match for the gold medal, his first son was born. In 2008, he took part in the Olympic Games in Beijing, where Poland came fifth and he received the award for Best Receiver. In 2011, he and the rest of the national team won the silver medal at the World Cup.[7] On July 8, 2012, the Polish national team (with Winiarski on the team roster) won the gold medal of the World League 2012 in Sofia, Bulgaria.[8][9] So far, he has played 212 matches in the Polish national team (as of September 24, 2013). In May 2014, Winiarski was chosen as the new captain of the national team, replacing the previous holder of the title, Marcin Możdżonek.[10] On September 21, 2014, Poland, with Winiarski as Captain, won the title of World Champion 2014.[11][12][13] On the same day, Winiarski announced his retirement from the Polish national team.[14] On October 27, 2014, Winiarski received a state award granted by the Polish President, Bronisław Komorowski: the Officer's Cross of Polonia Restitutafor outstanding sports achievements and the promotion of Poland in the world.[15] In April 2015 he was replaced as captain by Karol Kłos, but Kłos was injured and Michał Kubiak was the replacement captain.
PGE Skra Bełchatów
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2008/2009 - with Itas Diates Trentino
2009/2010 - with PGE Skra Bełchatów
2011/2012 - with PGE Skra Bełchatów
Polish Cup, with BOT Skra Bełchatów
Gold Cross of Merit
Officer's Cross of Polonia Restituta[16]
