Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Poland will seek to host the Olympics. He has also revealed plans for a new law requiring that women hold at least 30% of management positions in Polish sport.
Speaking at a sports facility in the town of Karczew, just outside Warsaw, Tusk said that a realistic goal would be for Poland to aim for the 2040 or 2044 summer games. The previous government last year announced that it wanted to bid for the 2036 Olympics.
“We have been de facto taking action for many months to make this dream of holding the Olympic Games in Poland a reality,” said the prime minister, quoted by broadcaster TVN. “[Now] Poland will formally make efforts to organise the Olympics.”
“I probably won’t be running around on the pitch when the Olympics are in Poland,” added Tusk, 67, who is a keen runner and footballer. “But I can do a lot in the next few years to make this dream a reality.”
Dziś w Karczewie na Orliku ogłaszam, że Polska przystępuje do walki o organizację Igrzysk Olimpijskich, strzelam bramkę i cieszę się jak dziecko. pic.twitter.com/xShXhFCzvd
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) August 16, 2024
Speaking alongside him, sports minister Sławomir Nitras noted that, when Poland co-hosted the Euro 2012 football championships, it “was a great civilisational project and the [Olympic] games can be even greater”, reports news website Gazeta.pl.
Tusk also announced that, in the coming weeks, the government plans to present a bill that would “raise the profile of women’s sport and human equality”. He said that the current situation of women in Polish sport is “scandalous”.
The legislation would guarantee 30% of places in the management of sporting authorities for women. It would also introduce measures – not specified by Tusk today – to combat violence in Polish sport.
“It cannot be that Polish sports is the only enclave where no one has heard about equal rights,” said the prime minister, who also promised measures to make the financing of sport “fully transparent”.
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Poland suffered disappointment at this summer’s Paris Olympics, returning with just one gold and ten medals in total – its worst result since 1956. In response, Tusk pledged to overhaul how sport is managed. However, the head of the Olympic committee blamed the government itself for the problems.
Of Poland’s ten medals, eight were won by women. This year’s Olympics were the first time in history that Poland sent more female than male athletes to the games.
During today’s announcement, Tusk also promoted the government’s “Active School” programme that seeks to make sports facilities more easily available.
Poland has finished @Paris2024 with just one gold and 10 medals in total – its worst result since 1956.
The prime minister has suggested there are failings in how Polish sport is managed. But the head of the Olympic committee has blamed the government https://t.co/iS9OqF1RuB
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 11, 2024
Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 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.
