Poland finished the Beijing 2008 Olympics with a haul of ten medals - three gold, six silver and one bronze. The number of medals is the same as four years ago in Athens, although there the Poles won less silver (two) and more bronze (five).
Danuta Isler reports
The 29th Olympic Games in Beijing saw the participation of the 263 strong team. This country was represented in 24 disciplines with track and field athletes making up the most numerous group. In total, the Polish team is bringing home ten medals: three gold, six silver and one bronze.The three gold medals were won by gymnast Leszek Blanik, rowing crew Adam Korol, Michal Jelinski, Marek Kolbowicz and Konrad Wasielewski, and by Tomasz Majewski, who won the men's shot put final.
Prior to the event the head of Poland's Olympic Committee, Piotr Nurowski said that swimming, canoeing, yachting and fencing were the strongest assets of the Polish team which is the largest squad Poland had ever taken to the Olympics apart from the games in Moscow and Munich. Results, however, did not match expectations just to name the failures of Polish swimmers and wrestlers or star tennis player Agnieszka Radwanska.
Nurowski appraised the 10 medal result with moderate optimism and announced tougher qualification rules for some disciplines in the future: 'These were very difficult games. The host country China demonstrated excellent preparation. The Americans and the British were a revelation. It was truly difficult to win medals. The ten medals, especially considering the proportion of precious metals, inspires moderate optimism. Now is the time to get down to work, analyze everything and think about London.'
During the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Polish athletes only won 10 medals while only two winners reached the Olympic podium for the first time. Tomasz Włodarczyk of the "Super Express" sports desks says steps must be taken to improve the situation: 'It's definitely not a good result because I think we should go forward and our sport should develop in the way to get more medals. I think money are very, very important on this stage. Although we spent 250 million zlotys on our Olympic program I think we still need to invest a little bit more. Maybe change some people, inject much more cash in sport and look after young people to make them future stars in our national team.'
The Polish Olympic Committee will hold a special session devoted to the evaluation of the performance of Poland team in the middle of September.