Daria Pająk (born 11 January 1993) is a competitive bowler on the

Professional Women's Bowling Association The Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) organizes and oversees a series of annual tournaments for the top competitive women ten-pin bowlers. The series is often referred to as the "women's tour" of bowling. The PWBA was formed in 1960 ...

(PWBA) Tour in the United States. Following early bowling success in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, Pająk moved to the United States in 2012, eventually going professional and earning PWBA 2017 Rookie of the Year. Currently she is a pro staff member for 900 Global, Turbo Grips, and Coolwick.

Youth and education

Born in

Piła Piła (german: Schneidemühl) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population as of 2021 was 71,846, making it the third-largest city in the voivodeship after Poznań ...

to parents Bozena and Miroslaw Pająk, she was 6 years old when the first bowling facility opened in

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

in 1999. Daria won the National Youth Championship at age 11 and was selected to represent Poland in the European Youth Championship. Pająk had won every major championship in Poland, both youth and adult, by age 16. She worked with coach Costas Mitsingas before attending

Webber International University Webber International University (Webber or WIU) is a private university in Babson Park, Florida. History Webber International was founded as Webber College by Roger Babson, an entrepreneur and business theorist in the first half of the 20th cent ...

Babson Park, Florida Babson Park is a census-designated place (CDP) in Polk County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,182 at the 2000 census. It is also the home of Webber International University. Babson Park is part of the Lakeland– Winter Haven Me ...

, in 2012. During four years of college Pająk was a part of a team who won the NAIA championship twice and the Intercollegiate Team Championship, the biggest title of college bowling.

Career

After college Pająk participated in a few tournaments on the PWBA Tour and

PBA Tour The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for ten-pin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Regional profess ...

. Daria performed well enough that some bowling companies signed her as a pro staff athlete. She qualified second for the

USBC Queens The USBC Queens is an annual ten-pin bowling event for amateur and professional female bowlers, sanctioned by the United States Bowling Congress. The event is one of four women's professional majors since the PWBA tour returned in 2015 and the femal ...

, made match play at the

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...

, and finished ninth at the 2016

PBA World Series of Bowling The PBA World Series of Bowling (WSOB) is an annual multi-tournament ten-pin bowling event held by the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) in North America. Formation The inaugural World Series of Bowling event was held by the PBA at the start ...

Cheetah Championship. Finding success in the professional scene, she applied for a pro card to bowl on the PWBA Tour professionally. She won her first PWBA title in the 2017 PWBA Greater

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Open and finished second to USBC Hall of Famer Liz Johnson in the

. She was named PWBA Rookie of the Year in 2017. In 2018, she continued the PWBA tour in the United States, and also appeared in some

European Bowling Tour The European Bowling Tour (EBT) is one of three tenpin bowling tours (Europe, Americas, Asia) that form part of the ranking system of the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA). The tour is run by the European Tenpin Bowling Federation The Euro ...

(EBT) tournaments. In June 2021, Pajak was invited to participate in the PBA King of the Lanes: Empress Edition event that was televised nationally in the US on

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...

. She won her first challenge match and held the Empress position for two more rounds, earning $25,000.

In popular culture

Pająk (and this Wikipedia page about her) was namedropped in the fourth season of ''

What We Do in the Shadows ''What We Do in the Shadows'' is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary horror comedy film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the ''What We Do in the Shadows'' franchise. The film also stars Clem ...

'', during the 2022 "Pine Barrens" episode.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pajak, Daria Living people 1993 births Polish bowling players