Janina Rosińska

Janina Rosińska was born on 30 April 1936. She came from the Bełchatów area of central Poland and in later years was closely associated with Pabianice. She worked as a teacher of geography and physical education before turning to competitive masters athletics.

She began running for recreation and only took up regular racing and serious training after the age of fifty. She competed for the AZS Łódź club and remained linked with Pabianice throughout her long racing life.

Rosińska moved from shorter races into half marathons, marathons, 100 kilometre races and multi-hour events. Profiles in the Polish press credited her with more than 360 finished marathons, a marathon best of 3:25, and 171 kilometres in a 24-hour race. She later said she held about 600 cups at home, and that her total medal haul passed 800, including more than 200 from Polish, European and world masters championships.

At the 1996 European Veterans Championships in Malmö she won the W60 marathon and took silver in the 10 kilometres and 1500 metres, a performance later described as the outstanding individual result of the Polish team. At the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships in Sacramento she won the W75 marathon in 5:47:42.10 and took silver in the 400 metres. In 2016 at the Polish veterans championships in Opole she set Polish W80 records at 100, 400, 800, 1500 and 5000 metres.

She continued to medal as an W80 and then W85 athlete at the World Masters Indoor Championships in Toruń in 2019 and 2023, and at the European Masters Indoor Championships in Toruń in 2024 and 2026. On 1 April 2026 she won the W85 200 metres in 61.00 seconds, adding further medals at 400 metres, 60 metres, 800 metres, the 6 kilometre cross-country and the mixed 4x200 metres relay. Across international masters championships she was credited with 34 medals: 11 gold, 10 silver and 3 bronze.

Rosińska lived with a heart pacemaker in her later years and returned to competition only with medical clearance. She was also a dancer with the Ad Rem group and a member of the Łask University of the Third Age. On a plot at Zdzieszulice Górne near Bełchatów she kept a private museum of trophies, photographs and cuttings from her races. She was a mother and grandmother. For her 90th birthday she said she wanted to enjoy being alive, to live at least to a hundred, and to keep running to a hundred.

Janina Rosińska died on 7 October 2026, aged 90. Nowe Życie Pabianic reported the death the same day. Athletics News, Sport.pl, Przegląd Sportowy Onet, WP abcZdrowie and Życie Pabianic followed with tributes that recalled her European title in Toruń earlier that year and her decades as a face of Polish masters running. The Łask University of the Third Age wrote that it was hard to believe they would not see her smile or hear about her next sporting challenge again.

The cause of death was not made public. The funeral was held on 9 October 2026 at 1pm at the St Maximilian Kolbe cemetery chapel at 55 Kilińskiego Street in Pabianice.

Rosińska is remembered as one of the most decorated Polish masters athletes of her generation and as a public example of racing late in life. Local and national coverage often named her among the oldest, or the oldest, entrants at road and cross-country races, and her W85 titles in Toruń in 2023, 2024 and 2026 made her a familiar figure far beyond the veterans circuit. Her private museum of cups and cuttings near Bełchatów, and her wish to keep running towards a hundred, remain part of how Polish running remembers her.