TRIBUTE TO POLISH MEDALISTS IN 2014

At XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

Poland's team won four Gold, one each Silver and Bronze, to place 11th in overall medal count.
This is their best performance ever, although Poland has participated in every Winter Olympics since the beginning in 1924.
.In Vancouver, in 2010, Poland had won one Gold, three Silver and one Bronze, and was 15th in medal count.

Two Gold medals in Ski-jumping,
Gold in Women's 10km. Cross-Country,
Gold in Men's 1500m Speed-skating,
Silver in Women's Speed Skating Team Pursuit,
Bronze in Men's Speed Skating Team Pursuit.

HERE ARE THE ATHLETES

SKI JUMPING - KAMIL STOCH

26 year old Kamil Stoch won the Gold Medal in both the Normal Hill and Large Hill competitions.
The Polish jumping team had the highest points in the second run of the Team event, but one of the team members jumped only 121m. in the first run, so the Polish team had to settle for overall 4th place.
Kamil Stoch, who resides in the Polish mountain resort Zakopane, took part in the 2006 and 2010 Olympics. He won the World Cup in 2013.

LADIES 10km CROSS COUNTRY - JUSTYNA KOWALCZYK

31 year old Justyna Kowalczyk is the reigning star of women's cross country skiing. She won the FIS Womens' Cross-Country World Cup four times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013). She is also the only skier who won the Tour de Ski four times in a row. Significantly, she is equally proficient in short sprints as well as distance runs. Since 2001 she has won 30 World Cup events - 23 distance and 7 sprint competitions.

At Sochi, in spite of a broken bone in her foot, she entered the Ladies' 10km. Classic and won 18 seconds ahead of Sweden's Charlotte Kalla. She also participated in the 15km. Skiathlon, finishing 6th. She was part of the Polish team in the 4x5km. Relay and Team Sprint Classic (5th place). She started in the 30km. Classic but had to withdraw at 12.5km due to her injury.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver, Justyna won Gold in the 30km., Silver in the Sprint Classic, Bronze in the 15km. Skiathlon.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino she won Bronze in the 30km. Classic.
For her outstanding performance and contribution to winter sport in Poland, in 1910 she was awarded Poland's highest award - Polonia Restitua with Knight's Cross and Star. She has a Master Degree in Physical Education and is working on her Doctor degree. She resides in the foothills of the Tatry mountains.

SPEED SKATING - ZBIGNIEW BRóDKA

29 year old Zbigniew Bródka is the only male to deny the reigning Dutch champions a Gold medal in long track speed skating at the 2014 Winter Olympics. In the 1500m. he beat the Dutch Koen Verweij by 3 milliseconds! That is roughly the length of a skate.

He won the 2013 World Cup in this event with 460 points (124 more than closest competitor), winning 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze in 9 events.

He is a firefghter in the national fire brigade station at Łowicz 100km. west of Warsaw. Lacking an ice rink anywhere close, he trains on roller blades.

SPEED SKATING - TEAM PURSUIT

SILVER MEDAL - WOMEN

Katarzyna Bachleda-Curuś, Natalia Czerwonka and Luiza Złotkowska beat the Russian team to enter the final race against the Dutch women. Predictably the Dutch won the Gold, the Polish women the Silver. In the final race the fourth member of the team Katarzyna Woźniak replaced Złotkowska.
At Vancouver in 2010, she, Złotkowska and Woźniak won the Bronze in the same event - Team Pursuit.

Katarzyna Bachleda-Curuś, née Wójcicka, was born in Sanok in 1980 and has participated in all Winter Olympics since 2006, racing in the 1500m Individual Long Track.

BRONZE MEDAL - MEN

Zbigniew Bródka, Konrad Niedźwiedzki and Jan Szymanski outskated the Canadian team by 2.33 seconds to win the Bronze medal
The same team also won the Bronze medal in the same event at the World Speedskating Championships in 2013, also held in Sochi.
Konrad Niedźwiedzki is son of the Polish team's trainer and has participated in the Winter Olympics in 2006 and 2010 in 1000m. and 1500m. He has won several medals in European championships in these events.

The Polish speed skaters have perservered although Poland does not possess an indoor speed skating track. They are forced to go to Germany for serious training. Hopefully their success this year will prompt the Polish government to provide the resources to build an indoor track.

The Dutch speed skating team is remarkable. It won 23 medals, 8 of them Gold, in long track speed skating. This is a record, no other national team has ever won this number of medals in a single sport.

Click on any photo to see full size.

All illustrations are edited versions of photos from official Sochi web-site.

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