Poland’s Olympic team contains more female athletes than male ones for the first time in history, helping contribute to Paris 2024’s ambition to become the first ever games to have gender parity among competitors.
On Monday, the Polish Olympic Committee announced the 213 athletes who will represent Poland at the games, which begin on 26 July. The list includes 113 women and 100 men.
213 zawodniczek i zawodników liczy zaprezentowana Olimpijska Reprezentacji Polski #Paryż2024 🔥 Kluczowe informacje o #TeamPL:
🇵🇱 W jej skład weszło 113 kobiet – więcej niż mężczyzn po raz pierwszy w historii – oraz 100 mężczyzn.
🇵🇱 Polska ma także prawo do wystawienia 18… pic.twitter.com/GbJSbTDQ9b— Polski Komitet Olimpijski | Team PL (@pkolpl) July 15, 2024
Among Poland’s leading medal hopefuls is hammer thrower Anita Włodarczyk, who has won gold at the last three Olympic games and is the women’s world record holder. She is widely considered the greatest women’s hammer thrower of all time.
In the men’s hammer throw, Wojciech Nowicki and Paweł Fajdek will also be hoping to add to the gold and bronze medals they won in Tokyo.
Perhaps the most globally famous Polish athlete appearing at this year’s games is Iga Świątek, the women’s world tennis number one and five-time Grand Slam winner.
The 23-year-old – whose father competed in the 1998 Olympics as a rower – will be hoping to banish the memories of Tokyo 2020, when she only managed to reach the second round of the singles.
World no. 1 @iga_swiatek is not just a star on the court but also a role model off it, discussing issues such as mental health, PMS and war in Ukraine.
She is challenging conceptions of Poland and presenting its modern face to the world, writes @MSewillo https://t.co/OJvVPHTkjI
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 6, 2022
Natalia Kaczmarek (pictured above) – part of the mixed 4x400m Polish relay team that won gold in Tokyo and the women’s relay team that won silver – is another medal hopeful, as are canoeists Karolina Naja and Anna Puławska, who won silver in Tokyo.
Speed climber Aleksandra Mirosław, a two-time women’s world champion, may also be in contention for a medal. In Tokyo, where climbing featured at the Olympics for the first time, Mirosław set a new women’s world record but managed only to finish fourth in the final standings.
The Paris Olympics of 1900 was the first in history to allow women to compete and this year’s games is expected to be the first to see an equal proportion of male and female competitors. At Tokyo 2020 this was almost achieved, with women’s participation reaching 48%.
At Tokyo, Poland won 14 medals in total, its joint-highest figure since the 1996 Atlanta games. Eight of those medals were won in women’s events and one in a mixed event.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Grzegorz Celejewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
