Daria Pająk (born 11 January 1993) is a competitive bowler on the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour in the United States. Following early bowling success in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, 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 a ...

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 in Babson Park, Florida, 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. Daria performed well enough that some bowling companies signed her as a pro staff athlete. She qualified second for the USBC Queens, made match play at the U.S. Women's Open, and finished ninth at the 2016 PBA World Series of Bowling 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

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Open and finished second to USBC Hall of Famer Liz Johnson in the U.S. Women's Open. 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. In all t ...

(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 Clemen ...

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

References

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