A real threat to Kacper Tomasiak. “We need to talk about it, we need to talk about it”

There is no doubt that thanks to the Olympic successes at Winter Olympics 2026, Kacper Tomasiak is no longer an anonymous figure for a wide audience. While the extremely talented, 19-year-old Pole made a lot of noise in the ski jumping world during the World Cup season, now the situation is completely different. Tomasiak achieved two Olympic successes, giving a lot of joy not only to people involved in ski jumping, but simply – to fans of Polish sports.

WINTER 2026: A threat to Kacper Tomasiak. This is the price of success

Just before the start of the games in Italy, WPROST published a long and interesting conversation with Matylda Olek-Stępień. An experienced sports psychologist talked about many issues related to, among others: with such big challenges as the Olympic starts. And let’s face it, there are also successes that can appear completely unexpectedly – and be really powerful.

Paradoxically, the issue of “success management” is extremely important for an athlete, regardless of age. Tomasiak is one of the examples that appeared here and now. But the threats associated with great Olympic success are only on the horizon.

Here is a fragment of a conversation in which the topic of success and coping with realities that are often completely new for the main characters or heroines is discussed:

Can you prepare for success? Especially the big, Olympic one?

I believe this is part of the preparation. We often prepare with players for various scenarios.

We have plans A, B and C. One of them assumes that we will do better than we expect. And then what? Especially in this context, when the competition is ongoing and I’m doing great. What should I do when I could soon be an Olympic champion?

So a jump close to the hill record in the first series?

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. If I prepare in advance, I am more likely to be able to manage my emotions. And this is one context of this clash with success in sports.

Let us remember that success may also be the beginning of a crisis. This is the one place you go to, where everything should be just perfect. And suddenly an important thread of the mental health crisis appears. We have socially very useful examples in which Justyna Kowalczyk or Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozłowska talked about what happened after achieving this great result, success in the form of the Olympic championship. The Olympic gold turned out to be the starting point of the biggest crisis in his career. It led to depression, which is a very serious disease.

It would seem quite unintuitive. After all, how can an Olympic gold medal be perceived as threatening? Yet.

After success, the question arises: What next?

Yes. It turns out that the sports goal, intended for the entire life of the athlete, is achieved. There is a loss of sense of meaning. Especially if the identity of the medalist was very closely related to sport. This is a multidimensional problem. Especially if an athlete defines himself by achieving a result, putting it first, above every other area of ​​u200bu200bhis life.

The ability to find yourself in a situation of great success is also important. This huge stimulus of interest, but also the risk that the athlete may become a national symbol. And this is the path to objectification. This is often associated with a crisis and players’ unpreparedness for such a situation.

Although I would like to point out that there are also people who will thrive in such great turmoil. It will also be a matter of choosing what I will let go of, where I will appear at the interview, what is most important to me. Here, too, there would be mental work to do to find yourself again. Meaning, purpose, why am I doing this? What is my new goal? Why am I doing sports now?

Such questions arise in the minds of players after their success and they need to be talked about.

We invite you to watch the entire conversation in the context of Winter Olympics 2026 on WPROST.

For Kacper Tomasiak, this is not the end of Olympic emotions. On Monday evening (i.e. February 16) the two-time 2026 Winter Olympics medalist will perform in the duet competition, in a team with Paweł Wąsek. Starting at 7:00 p.m.

Broadcasts from Winter Olympics 2026 in Poland are provided by Telewizja Polska (TVP) and the Discovery group (Eurosport). The event will last until Sunday, February 22.