Inside Polish Sports

Hej! puszczę ja oczy daleko od siebie! Niech lecą, polecą, jak ptaki po niebie, Aż do tej krainy, Gdzie Wisła zaczyna Szumić swe pieśni wawelskiemu wzgórzu; Aż tam, do Krakowa, Co w dawnych się chwałach i wiekach pochowa, W koronie z prastarego tużu... Tam wieże strzeliste w błękitach się złocą, I hejnał z wieżycy zadzwoni przed nocą, I śpią królów kości W podziemnej ciemności, A nad ich poprostu wiekami i wiekiem Płynie Wisła senna z dalekim człowiekiem, I szumi o dawnej potędze i dumie, Czego już dzisiaj nikt dobrze nie umie...   Maria Konopnicka  

The political turmoil isn't the only tribunal that Poland is festering over this week. Jan Urban might not even last until Christmas as national team manager, as Cezary Kulesza might replace him with...........newly sacked Udinese boss Kosta Runjaic. I guess this is the best Polish football deserves nowadays: a manager who only won once in the last ten games. You have to start asking yourselves if Kulesza is doing all this on purpose so that he gets sacked before his term ends and gets a divorce payment. Also, two new YT interviews with Lewy have dropped, one of them 69 minutes long(BURN!). An update on the Ekstraklasa TV rights tender and on Lech repenting (some) sins vs Wisła, Iga(rightfully) skipping the United Cup and Polish Hockey's Best. Promotional. Video. EVER!!!!!!!!!! Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DfP-2FpkZCB/ 

Lewy Scar Tissue strikes again with the Ballon d'Or as Ewa Pajor finishes second. But even though it's a disappointment, it is still a remarkable success for a girl from a town of just forty-five people who started playing with her cousin in front of a barn door. Imagine how much further Women's Football can go in Poland if she actually gets to the World Cup finals next year. It was a weekend for our golden oldies as Krzysztof Ratajski(age 49) beat Luke Littler, Kasia Kawa(34) knocked a set off Elena Rybakina, Diablo Włodarczyk(45) returned to the fight game, Kamil Grosicki(38) scored twice and Janusz Kołodziej(42) was lauded by his Speedway peers in retirement. And you'll get a chance to listen to my match report from Polonia Bytom's 7-2 win on Sunday at Cracovia and an interview with the Colorado Avalanche's 3rd round draft pick from 2021 Andrey Buyalsky.

Turns out our Maja the Bee not only floats but also stings. The critics that is! Not only did she beat Iga in their first ever main tour clash, but then came back against Sonay Kartal to win her first career title and just to the brink of the Top 10 just two places below Iga and 103 above where she was back in May! Also, Daniela Hantuchova is surprised that after a nationwide power cut in Spain Iga's psychologist still wanted a meal(Because the microwave was working by then!), two Ekstraklasa clubs sack managers, Natalia Bajor gets our biggest Table Tennis success in years and Daria Pikulik could be at risk of losing an Olympic medal due to missing three doping controls.

On Sunday night the father of a family of Wisła fans was assaulted by Legia anti-fans in the stadium's away sector simply because he, his wife and their kids were invited by Legia fans to one place in a Polish stadium where you are supposed to be safe from danger and the stigma of simply wanting to watch a match without violence. I'll argue why those trojan horse family sectors should be axed and why any separation of away fans simply leads to the police not being available in other places where trouble can happen.   Also, our girls make the World Cup playoff finals(Can't wait for Irish Dave to give me a Bailey's after I win a friendly bet), Jan Urban's boys should thank their lucky stars for Romania because otherwise he would be sacked, Cezary Kulesza first is shown drunk(Again!) and then Epsteins the evidence out and Jerzy Brzęczek's U21 team is Hail Mary'ed by Italy's keeper.

Last Sunday, I have finally became a sports journalist by definition, attending my first Hockey game as an accredited member of the press. In this episode I will talk about my experience at the game, the improbable story of how STS Sanok survived thanks to a partnership with a Kyiv club, the recent divorce between the Football and Hockey departments of Cracovia and post-game interviews with: - Cracovia head coach Krystian Dziubiński - Cracovia's Canadian centre Sean Montgomery - Cracovia's Finnish goalie Santeri Lipiainen - Cracovia's newly minted 700-gamer Damian Kapica - Sanok's Nikita Zouzila Link to the fundraiser for Ania Sawicka, the mum of Sanok's Adam and Radosław: https://zrzutka.pl/xnkj6f

Volleyball is our national sport and you are cursed by Danhausen if you disagree! THIRTY major tournament medals between our Men and Women since 2003, and on Saturday Nikola Grbic's dominators won their third European Championship gold in that time span, clinching a spot at the 2028 Olympics. And we created this infallible, laughably consistent machine because we worked together. Universities, Schools, Clubs, Government etc. all created a system of synergy which, without a break, provides us with and supports young players, no matter whether they make the national team as rookies or come back after a 7 year exile and a bout with depression like Bartłomiej Lemański. Kasia Niewiadoma also is a product of all parties responsible for Polish cycling working together to develop a brilliant talent, albeit one that just lost out on the World title to her archrival Demi Vollering. Whilst Bartosz Zmarzlik is more than anything a product of his own desire and bloody-mindedness, even if we still have to wait for a record seventh World title as Robert Lambert pipped him to the trophy. As for the Footballers..................I don't even want to expand on that.

It is a fact of both life and Polish sport that Women are just better at everything. Maria Okrucińska proved just that last night in Montreal by winning the World Junior Time Trial title whilst Kasia Niewiadoma will go for the Road Race rainbow jersey on Saturday. Our Under 20 footballers may have gone out of the home World Cup but certainly didn't disgrace themselves after a 100% group stage record. Whilst on the track Klaudia Kazimierska destroyed her more experienced opposition in Brussels, Budapest and now at Crystal Palace. On the men's side, Jan Urban's first competitive spell as Poland manager is sadly overshadowed by the meerkat on Wojciech Mońka's sweater and how some people have no right in the universe to scout for the fashion police. The Volleyball boys are in the Euro semis but that's where it starts going uphill on the road to the 2028 Olympics. And please don't let Rob Lambert or Brady Kurtz put Bartek Zmarzlik into the boards in case of the World Speedway title being decided in the final heat in Toruń. I'll fight them, you'll fight them, we're all fight them!

So in the fortnight that I've been on a job hunting break so many things happened that it would be apt to quote Macklemore and say that Polish sport, both on and off the field, is in "an F-ed up position". Exhibit A is Iga and the most inexplicable collapse of her career against Qinwen Zheng. The problem with her right now is not the opponents, the injuries or the coaching staff. It's simply that she cares very much about playing and the greatness that we forced upon her since she was in grade school. And at age 25 it's still too early for her to have found the experience or meaning in life outside of the courts. She is the most public when winning or losing but in private she is isolated, which is the exact opposite of the structure that Tennis stars need. Exhibit B is the Polish Olympic Committee, now liberated from Radosław Piesiewicz but still needing a complete overhaul and kumbaya with the great Olympians who have been shunned by the previous regime, most notably Justyna Kowalczyk. Exhibit C is Jagiellonia Białystok whose manager texted with one of the linesmen last season to tell the ref in a crucial match to go easy on the bookings. Maybe not as bad a sin as Luciano Moggi speed dialling every ref in Italy during Calciopoli 20 years ago, but still something for which Jaga must suspend him before PZPN/Ekstraklasa give out bigger punishments. Also, why Rodrigo de Paul taunting Lewy about not having won a World Cup is understandable purely from the Argentinian chauvinistic mindset, Damian Knyba moves closer to a heavyweight title shot by dispatching Andy Ruiz whilst Michał Cieślak becomes a Cruiserweight champ, but in accordance with Boxing's absurd system not the champion. Hubert Wagner and the 1976 Volleyball Gold retrospective coming up on Friday or Saturday. Interview Episode next week.

Well who would have thought......... That the guy who was never an athlete or an Olympian himself yet posed on sponsorship billboards with our Olympians. Who used the Okęcie Airport VIP lounge for him and his family at least 35 times in just the first 18 months of his chairmanship. Who spent 12 million of our public złotys on a Polish House for our athletes in Paris which cost 30 euro to even walk into. Who gave our medalists from Milano/Cortina prize money in form of tokens and not cash while knowing that the exchange will go bust. Has now been arrested and charged with two counts, including one in which he accepted a 40,000 euro watch as a bribe from the head of that said crypto exchange that has now gone bust. I would've never guessed.............