Ewa Mataya Laurance - Part 4 (The Win That Mattered Most—and the Life She Chose After Greatness)
In the final chapter of our four-part life story with WPBA Hall of Famer Ewa Mataya Laurance, we land where legends are forged: on the road, under the lights, and in the moments that reveal what matters most.
Ewa takes us inside a whirlwind era when she was traveling 260 days a year—tournaments, exhibitions, corporate events, and the kind of surreal TV appearances that can pull an athlete away from the very craft that made them famous. It’s a candid look at success: how it arrives fast, demands yes, and quietly reshapes priorities.
From there, Ewa opens the curtain on the business battle behind women’s professional pool—her time leading the WPBA, fighting for excellence over image, and pushing back against the idea that the sport should be marketed as entertainment first. She recalls pivotal negotiations with ESPN, the strategy that helped create meaningful airtime for a true tour, and the tug-of-war moments that defined an entire generation of women’s pool.
And then… the match.
Ewa relives the victory she treasures most—not a world title by name, but a win that felt like the ultimate statement: defeating the incomparable Allison Fisher in the finals of the 2012 Soaring Eagle Masters, in what she calls the last great ESPN era before the shift to ESPN3. From switching cues days before the event to reading the smallest signs of pressure across the arena, she brings us shot-by-shot into the mindset of a champion who still knew how to summon greatness.
We close with our signature three questions—Ewa’s moving reflections on forgiveness, the one “mulligan” she’d take back, and how she hopes to be remembered: hard-working, honest, stubborn, fair… and a very good grandma.
This is Ewa’s finish—full of fire, heart, and truth.
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Music by Lyrium.
About
"Legends of the Cue" is a pool history podcast featuring interviews with Pool Hall of Fame members, winners of major championships and other people of influence in and around pocket billiards. We also plan to highlight memorable pool brands, events and venues. Focusing on the positive aspects of the sport, we aim to create and provide an engaging and timeless repository of content that listeners can enjoy now and forever. Co-hosted by WPBA and BCA Hall of Fame member Allison Fisher, Mosconi Cup player and captain Mark Wilson, our podcast focuses on telling the life stories of pool's greatest, in their voices. Join Allison, Mark and Mike Gonzalez for “Legends of the Cue.”
Pool Professional
Ewa Mataya Laurance, forever known to fans as “The Striking Viking”, is one of the most significant figures in women’s professional pool: a champion who helped define an era, a broadcaster who helped explain the game to the wider world, and a leader who fought to move women’s billiards from smoky back rooms to legitimate sponsorship, television, and tour stability. Her story isn’t only about trophies. It’s about an immigrant’s stubborn commitment to a dream, the realities of making a living in a niche sport, and the will to keep building something bigger than yourself—while still caring, first and last, about playing pool.
Raised in Sweden, Ewa grew up athletic and fiercely competitive, a self-described “tomboy” who preferred sports and action to anything delicate. She played team games, but the longer she competed, the more she wanted full responsibility for outcomes. Pool gave her that: complete accountability, a mental battlefield, and an endless puzzle. What hooked her wasn’t just pocketing balls; it was the strategy, especially the pattern play and precision that turned runs into something planned, not accidental. From early on she gravitated to the “chess” side of the game: cue-ball routes, discipline, and learning how to control a table under pressure.
As a teenager, she began traveling and competing seriously, and by the time she reached international events she had already developed the engine that would define her career: practice, repetition, and a refusal to accept limits. A formative trip to the United States opened her eyes to the scale of …Read More