Born in 1952, Henryk Olszewski practiced throwing competitions in his youth in the Warsaw Gwardia. He is a graduate of the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw. From 1975 he was a player at AZS Bialystok and later a coach at Bialystok clubs. His athletes included Eugeniusz Bedeniczuk, Krystyna Zabawska Since the mid-1970s he has been professionally associated with the Polish Athletics Association. He held the position of coach of the junior team, later he was also head of the throwing block and vice president of the Association for training. As coach, he led Tomasz Majewski to two Olympic gold medals – in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Henryk Olszewski was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland in 2009, and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Rebirth of Poland in 2008.
In 2012, for his outstanding sports achievements, he was the winner of the 78th Sports Review Poll and received the title of coach of the year.

Since 2016, he has served as President of the Polish Athletics Association. In 2019, at the Academy of Physical Education in Wroclaw, he defended his doctoral thesis, “Training patterns and the starting ability of a ball thrower – an Olympic athlete. In October 2022, he was elected to the Council of European Athletics.