Some upside to the fact that the performance of many of the Polish athletes in Paris is judged to be poor is the promise to look into the functioning of Polish sports associations, which after all draw millions of zlotys from the state budget.
This text has been auto-translated from Polish.
The stands in Paris were packed from early morning to late evening, regardless of the popularity of the discipline, whether it had been at the Games "forever" or had just made its debut, and even regardless of the hosts' medal chances. As with the heightened interest in Eurovision, it seems that Europe (and the world at large) badly needed a joyful and communal celebration as an antidote to the sad days of covid isolation. And the French have made it possible for us, putting on a great show in their beautiful capital.
It wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the work of tens of thousands of people: volunteers, public transport drivers, law enforcement and security personnel. Even before the event, one might have feared poor organization due to the huge number of guests who will visit the French capital, but thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, everything went smoothly. I even had the impression that Paris was less crowded than usual - probably helped by the departure of many residents from the city for the Games. Still, crowds of people of many nationalities and speaking different languages easily made their way to the venues to cheer together. Together, that is, applauding the successful attempts, plays or performances of all the athletes, enjoying the medals of Korean archers, Belgian seven-boaters or Dutch runners, but also grieving after failed attempts and appreciating each of the results achieved.
From Paris with love
At last, fans were able to experience live the touching moments that are an indispensable part of the celebration of sports that is the Olympic Games. Like when Mondo Duplantis broke the world record in front of a crowd of 80,000 at the Stade de France. Or when in the same arena Antoine Dupont led the French rugby team to win its first gold. And when Sifan Hassan won a marathon hours after winning a medal in the 10,000 meters, and then picked up the won medal at the closing ceremony. Never before has the closing ceremony exclusively recognized the winners of a women's race.
Fourth in the 3,000-meter run, Alice Finot, after running to the finish line, proposed to her partner, presenting him with her Olympic pin. In the end, the Paris Games broke the record for the number of declarations. Charming moments were also experienced with the already married couples.
Water jumping legend Tom Daley won silver at his fifth Games, with his husband and children cheering him on from the stands. Brittney Grinner, who returned to the national team after a stint in a Russian prison, enjoyed gold in basketball with her wife. Distance jump winner Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrated with her husband, who will represent the US at the Paralympic Games any day now. Tokyo Olympic high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi lost his wedding ring while serving as an ensign for the Italian national team, and wrote a poem for his wife as an apology.
Healthy body and healthy spirit
The atmosphere and participation of fans is not only a cool touch to the competition, a nice picture on TV and fond memories. It is also a support for those participating in the competition, often very important for their well-being. One of the biggest stars and a favorite in most gymnastics competitions, Simone Biles, withdrew from competition shortly after arriving at the previous Games in Tokyo due to "twisties." This is one of the terms professional athletes use to describe a sudden loss of athletic ability previously fundamental to their sport, which is not caused by injury and is most likely psychosomatic in origin.
Being in the spotlight of the media and fans, Biles has been open from the beginning about what she is struggling with. She stressed that the isolation required at the event contributed significantly to her problems. She also pointed to her experience of sexual violence by a doctor working with the national team and the passivity of sports authorities.
Her openness contributed immensely to normalizing the discussion of mental problems in and out of sports. Following her example, many other athletes began to talk about their own struggles with "twisties," as well as with depression or anxiety disorders. In Paris, Simone Biles returned to the Olympic arena, emphasizing that she would not have been able to do so without psychotherapy. She won three golds and a silver, but became a heroine regardless of her athletic performance.
Women's Games
For the first time in history, the number of men and women competing at the Games was equal. However, it's hard not to shake the feeling that this was more of the Women's Games than ever before. This was certainly the case from the Polish perspective - as many as 8 rings were brought back by women, including Ola Miroslaw - the only gold. Interestingly, for the medal classification-winning United States, the women won twice as many gold medals as the men, led by the medalists: Simone Biles, great swimmers including the legendary Katie Ledecky or runner Gabby Thomas. Not surprisingly, the Polish media coverage was dominated by female athletes..
Women from countries that have not previously enjoyed Olympic success and thus lacked the facilities comparable to many other national teams also made history in Paris. Thea LaFond of Dominica, Adriana Ruano of Guatemala and Julian Alfred of Saint Lucia won the first-ever gold medals for their countries, while Cindy Gamba won historic bronze for the refugee national team. It should be added that one such situation also occurred in the men's competition - the first Olympic championship for his country was won by Leslie Tebogo of Botswana.
The organizers of the Paris Games took care of the competing moms - the Olympic village featured a crèche for the first time, opened by Alyson Felix. This eleven-time Olympic medalist, and current member of the International Olympic Committee, is an activist for the accessibility and adaptation of professional sports for women with children. In the Paris arenas, we witnessed Adrianna Sulek standing on the start line of the seven-boat competition six months after giving birth to her son, while spade fighter Nada Hafez and archer Yaylagul Ramazanova performed even while pregnant.
Sophomore volleyball players
I was lucky enough to get tickets for the men's volleyball semifinal even before the Games. They were bought with hope, but also concern about whether the Polish volleyball players would drop out in the quarterfinals, as had happened in the five previous Olympic tournaments. They didn't fall off. This team, winners of every possible laurel in volleyball except an Olympic medal, faced a huge opportunity. A win guaranteed the first medal in a team sport at the Olympic Games for Poland in their lifetime (and mine).
So I knew it would be an important match, and I could also expect it to be difficult. But in the end I became a witness to one of the most exciting events in the history of Polish sports. After losing to 14. in the third set, it might have seemed to many that the injury-torn Polish team was shattered and would not rise again in this match. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kurek, Leon and company won after a horror show and the Polish national team advanced to the Olympic volleyball finals for the first time in almost 50 years.
Opening Ceremony
Thanks to my trip to France, I missed most of the drama surrounding the scandalous (in the opinion of some) opening of the Olympics. The discussion heated up primarily over the alleged parody of the Last Supper. Although the authors of the ceremony pointed to the completely unbiblical inspiration of the feast of the gods of Olympus, it turned out that it was forbidden to seat a group of people on one side of a long table - if they were wearing drag, of course. After all, when the mafiosi from The Sopranos Family or characters from The Simpsons, South Park or Lost were portrayed this way, the outrage was not observed. Or maybe there just wasn't an X back then. But it exists now, and unfortunately many of the performing artists have been victims of online harassment.
Putting aside this storm in a teacup, one must admit that the French, for the first time going with the ceremony outside the stadium and using the beauty of Paris as a backdrop, but also as the hero of the ceremony, created an unforgettable spectacle. I, for one, will remember the recreation of "Freedom Leading the People to the Barricades," the severed heads singing to the music of the band Gojira, the tribute to sisterhood, and the person following the Seine on a metal steed with the Olympic flag. Although paradoxically - due to the momentum and the weather - this was the only event of the Games that happened to be better watched on TV than live.
Experts on femininity
Unfortunately, it was not without - quite expected, given the current state of public debate - controversy over the participation of alleged "men" in women's competitions. Joining the chorus of the disgruntled were the president and many other politicians, the head of the Polish Olympic Committee, as well as regular participants in such "discussions" Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling. In the pages of Krytyka Polityczna, the issue was discussed by Kajetan Woźnikowski and Patrycja Wieczorkiewicz..
All this led to grotesque situations - like when judoka Angelika Szymanska had to stand up for herself after losing to Prisca Alcaraz, because some people "noticed" that the Mexican woman was "in fact" a man and had committed fraud.
It also led to appalling situations - like the harassment experienced by Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Shortly after the Games, Khelif notified French authorities of the crime of persistent harassment, listing tweets by Rowling and Musk, among others. In the background, we have the International Boxing Association (IBA), which was ousted from the Olympic boxing competition as early as 2019 due to corruption and shady ties to criminal organizations. The organization is currently financed by Gazprom, and its head has close relations with Vladimir Putin. The IBA became famous, for example, for suspending Ukraine from membership (in 2022!) while allowing the Russian and Belarusian national teams to participate in the championships. For this reason, the competitions at which the disqualifications of Khelif and Yu-ting took place were boycotted by 19 federations from around the world, including Poland. But most importantly - due to the confidentiality of medical information, no one among those so eager to comment on the case knows what the IBU's "gender tests" showed specifically, or even what they consisted of.
Polish House not for fans
The opening of the Polish House in Paris was a very good idea - on paper. It's nice for fans to be able to come somewhere to watch the competition on a big screen and cheer in a larger group. Admittedly, a ticket cost 130 zloty per person, but that's still significantly less than tickets to similar fan zones of other national teams, such as the US or Germany. Many people involved in the project did a great job, visitors could taste local delicacies, enjoy cold drinks, get a temporary tattoo or fill out a quiz with prizes. There was also an opportunity to play basketball and ping-pong, as well as two large screens showing current events at the Games. A visit there, however, left me with distaste. .
It so happened that I visited the place on the day when Iga Swiatek was receiving her medal. So it turned out that she would come to meet her fans. And then the bizarre spectacle began.
For starters, all visitors were fenced off from the "stage" with barriers. It crossed my mind that this was probably an exaggerated precaution - after all, we were very thoroughly searched upon entering the event area. Then the sports struggles presented on the screens were turned off, and a person came out on the rise in front of them, who announced that Iga Swiatek would soon come, and then for the next forty-five minutes taught us how to "greet" her, what to shout, how to clap... Can we really not trust committed fans to be able to applaud the Olympic medalist? After this lengthy training, a bewildered Iga was brought in, and with her appearance, the President of the Polish Olympic Committee also showed up, who of course gave her a speech, handed her red and white flowers and took photos. Then Iga was finally allowed to have her say, and she thanked and encouraged her to cheer on other Polish athletes.
This was short-lived, understandably, after all, the athlete had had a tough tournament and needed rest. But was she therefore able to go out and spend her time as she pleased? Where! Preparations for the entire show took an hour and a half for Iga to spend five minutes on stage. Then she was taken "upstairs" (for a couple of hours), presumably so that all the activists could get properly flaunted and photographed. At the stairs, instead, people were set up to defend the entrance of children who wanted to take photos or autographs. When I left, the children were still waiting there. And I never went there again.
Polish sports associations
One upside to the fact that the performance of many of the Polish athletes in Paris is judged to be poor is the promise of a look at the functioning of Polish sports associations, which after all draw millions of zlotys from the state budget. Despite this, Polish cyclists have no funding for national team training, and they get their suits the day before the start. According to media reports, the families of wrestling association activists go to the Olympics, but the sparring partner of a medal candidate cannot go. Let's hope the promise doesn't end there, although it's hard to believe it in a country where for as long as I can remember outstanding athletes have had to fight against the system, and where (not inconsiderable) sports funding is often diverted to finance trips for sports activists and their families.
If anyone watched the Olympics on TV, they probably saw a spot during the advertising block in which prominent Polish female athletes pointed out the low participation of women in sports management. Out of 69 sports associations in Poland, 65 are governed by men. Aside from the fact that, as you can see, professional sports is one area where sexism is holding strong (Marriage of women in sports, Agnieszka Wisniewska writes more about this), it is a symbol of how archaic these organizations look. It's no different with the Polish Olympic Committee, which, of course, also hasn't had a woman in charge in its 105 years of existence. Even the great Irena Szewińska was only a vice president.
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Karolina Wiśniowska - a graduate of law and philosophy at Jagiellonian University. Author of scientific and journalistic texts on bioethics, social philosophy and philosophy of law. Privately a fan of British pop culture and a sports fanatic.
