Polish activism surged during the Paris Games. Rarely has there been so much talk about people who, in theory, exist to provide our representatives with optimal conditions for preparation. Against this backdrop, the star of Radosław Piesiewicz, a protégé of Jacek Sasin, now the PiS presidential candidate and head of the Polish Olympic Committee, shone brightest. In Paris, Piesiewicz clearly had a problem keeping his ego in check; he preens in front of the cameras and tries to build an image of a well-informed person. He reported on the injury of volleyball player Michał Bieniek at X three times, which – which was pointed out by the nervous coach Nikola Grbic — made the task easier for the Americans.
It was Piesiewicz who also accomplished the most daring feat, which would have made the great Simone Biles proud – before the games, he appeared on the covers with our medal hopes, and shortly before extinguishing the torch, he said on Radio Zet that “the Polish Olympic Committee is not responsible for the preparation of athletes.”
Where did the bad games in Paris come from?
These Games will not only be remembered by fans, but will also occupy a prominent place. However, the medals in volleyball and tennis, which have been awaited for decades, cannot hide the truth about Polish Olympic sports.
The reality is that we are experiencing the worst Olympic Games since 1956. We are below the Philippines in the medal standings and we took a medal away from the athletics stadium.
Before the Olympics, we wrote in “Newsweek” that no political party has an idea for Polish sport. We have been operating without a plan for decades, medals are awarded by outstanding individuals, not by the system. That we need to answer fundamental questions.
Maybe we should decide as a society to stop subsidizing associations, stop giving scholarships and spend that money on general sports and subsidize facilities so that going to the pool with a family of four doesn’t break the bank? Let the unions operate, but with sponsors’ money. If someone wants to play sports professionally, they should take care of themselves.
Stupid? Certainly better than what we have now, when we act on a case-by-case basis.
An important caveat here: Olympic medals do not come from the universality of sport, the number of physical education classes or the availability of stadiums and sports halls. It is well known that the state must do everything to encourage the mobility of its citizens. But in this way it strives to increase life expectancy and ease the burden on the health system, not for a place in the medal standings.
What to do with Polish sport
Medals, however trivial they may seem, need to be invented. So if we decide that we are going to invest in professional sports, that we have the conditions to play in the Olympics, we will create a plan, think about which sports we want to invest in, we will set goals for the athletes, we will audit our associations, we will do everything that, shortly before the end of the next Games, the Polish Prime Minister, rejoicing in his successes, he did not need to add at the same time:
“I would very much like to reveal all the signs that Polish sport has become a way for politicians or activists to make a lot of money. I want the POC and sports associations to be accountable to the public for public money.”
I would not like to prioritise Donald Tusk’s challenges, we know under what conditions he took over the country from PiS. We know what the previous government did with state-owned companies. But I am convinced that not even the Prime Minister expects how many bodies lie in all these closets of activists in Polish sports associations that have not been disturbed for decades.
