People don’t want the Olympic Games in Poland? “It’s hard to get citizens’ consent”

Looking at the chronology, the idea of ​​organizing the summer Olympic Games in Poland was already announced in 2023. It was then announced that the Polish side would make efforts to host the event in 2036. These words were spoken by, among others, the then Minister of Sport and Tourism Kamil Bortniczuk and accompanying him President Andrzej Duda.

Aleksander Kwaśniewski: “I am saddened by the fact that the Olympics are so expensive”

The next approach is a new government, the year 2024 and the solution proposed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the current Minister of Sports, Sławomir Nitras. Poland would like to organize the Summer Olympics in 2040 or 2044.

And what are the actual chances of this happening?

– The problem with the Olympics is that they cost too much. Therefore, the proposal to organize the Olympics in Poland also comes from politics. I am saddened by the fact that the Olympic Games are so expensive and the number of countries that can organize them is so limited, and that there are fewer and fewer democratic countries among them, because it is difficult to obtain citizens’ consent to spend so much money. More and more autocratic countries are ready to do this – admitted former President of the Republic of Poland (1995-2005), Aleksander Kwaśniewski, to Polsat Sport.

The last Olympic Games in Paris cost approximately USD 9-10 billion. And it was the cheapest of the events, due to the quite well-developed sports infrastructure in the French capital. In the case of Warsaw or the places where the games would be organized in Poland, there is no such luxury.

In the “Polsat Sport Talk” program, Kwaśniewski also referred to politics in sports and the role that both the IOC and the Polish Olympic Committee should play.

– One of the forms of defending sport from politics is removing political figures from positions in the Olympic movement. As long as we can ensure that the next president of the IOC is an athlete, an Olympian, and not the Prince of Jordan, it will not be good. In Poland, we should protect the Polish Olympic Committee so that it is not excessively politicized, he admitted.

Let us add that Poland has twice tried to organize the Olympic Games in the 21st century. In both cases, there was talk of winter Olympic competition. However, Zakopane did not get a chance to organize it, neither in 2006 nor in 2014.

Ten medals of the Polish national team at the Olympic Games in Paris

Poland finished the Olympic Games with ten medals in the French capital. Klaudia Zwolińska, a mountain kayaker, was the first to win the Olympic vice-championship. The Polish epee players then added the bronze medal, gaining success in the team by winning the match for 3rd place against the Chinese after a great fight.

Men responded to the ladies’ successes. The bronze medal was won by the Polish double team: Dominik Czaja, Fabian Barański, Mirosław Ziętarski and Mateusz Biskup. On Friday, August 2, Iga Świątek added the bronze medal. She was the first in the history of the Polish Olympic movement to win an Olympic medal in tennis.

The next two medals are successes in climbing against time, two by Aleksandra – Mirosław with gold and Kałucka with bronze. Natalia Kaczmarek also won a bronze medal on Friday (i.e. August 9), after a great run in the 400-meter final. It was also the first, long-awaited album for Poland, looking at the athletics competition.

The Polish national volleyball team added its eighth medal, Olympic silver, on Saturday. Poles lost to France in the final 0:3. The penultimate medal is the final achieved by boxer Julia Szeremeta, who ultimately won silver in the 57 kg category. And this one on the last day of the Olympic Games 2024, in track cycling, by Daria Pikulik.