Why can't Polish athletes ever win the big one?

Radwanska has a clear field ahead of her and loses a chance to win the US Open, Kubica never has finished higher than third, Malysz has never won an Olympic gold medal. Why are Polish athletes such chokers? Don't say it's because Polish athletes are poor. There are plenty of Russian champions who are poor.

i don't really no mate but your not the only one who is thinking like this, i am saying the same about the British sometimes although lately we have had some victories or good athletes.

Give me a break. Kubica driving in BMW simply has no chance with 2 best teams, Małysz is one of 3-4 best ever sportsmen in ski jumping and he still jumps and Radwańska is simply still far from the top, It's rather Sharapova, who has had a bad day.

excuses excuses excuses i hear the same rubbish in england, if your not good enough to be a winner then you have to admit it :)

So which part of my post is "rubbish" ?

exactly what i said, the excuses for not winning

Why do I have the impression that whatever we will say it will be "an excuse"?

no because you can just say they are not winners or not good enough for the level their at, if somebody is not cutting the mustard after a few years of training etc etc then its time to withdraw the funds and find somebody who will win you medals

How the hell saying that Radwańska is a weak player is an "excuse" ? It's a reason, not any excuse.

Actually Małysz is definitely a winner and good enough for the level his at. Kubica and Radwańska are just beginners, but if it would make you happy than OK, they are losers. :)

I think Malysz is going to do a very good season 2007/2008 ,he's on his way back. Actually one of my favorite Skijumpers.

Like I said Malysz has never won the big one, an Olympic gold medal.
The only Polish athlete I think who has ice water in her veins when it comes to big events is Otylia jedrzejczak. Maybe Radwanska, Malysz, and Kubica can get advice from her. I don't consider Pudzianowski an athlete because he takes performance enhancers.

Małysz won 4 times the whole world cup and is 4 times world champion and Olympic gold medal is not any "big one", some guy has stronger wind and he gets the medal, It's much more difficult to win the world cup.

There won't be a better and more consistent ski-jumber than Malysz this century. Wojciech Fortuna, another Polish ski-jumber, won an Olympic gold in ski-jumping back in 1972.

Every winter athlete dreams about winning an olympic gold medal. Nobody cares about anything less than that. I'm talking about current athletes.

Robert Korzeniowski - multiple world and olympic champion

Pudzian is the best

dude, radwanska and kubica are up and coming.. to early to call.

malysz is world class.

poland has a host of gold medals over the years (and silver and gold.). make google your friend before you spout the crap.


the russians have always pumped big money into their olympic sports... always.. china is doing it now.. poland is no comparison. back in the 80s and early 90s USA bought polish hockey gear for the olympics. lol...

england has a few champions.. not everything is olympics.

Radwanska will never have a better chance to win the US open than this year. Sharapova was out of the way and anyone who has seen Serena Williams can see that she is fat and out of shape. Everyone knows who Radwanska is now and she won't be able to sneak up on anybody next year.

That's true Radwanska won't be ignored now (feel a little sorry for her younger sister ;). But she needs to gain more muscles and physical strength to achieve even more and in the long-run.

Athletes need big money to become world champions, simple as that.

it's all about performance and entertainment value for me. People have become blind to the fact that there are more important elements in sport than winning. One of the most amazing sporting performances i have ever seen was for 2nd place in xcountry skiing. The media should be less fixiated on who's number 1 imo.

Ever but only current atheletes?

You gotta decide what you're really talking about

Summer Olympics (Gold Medals won by Poles):
1928-1
1932-2
1952-1
1956-1
1960-4
1964-7
1968-5
1972-7
1976-7
1980-3
1984-3
1988-2
1992-3
1996-7
2000-6
2004-3



You care when you write:

and that makes your previous statement false.
The latter quote is a prediction. Got a crystal ball?

Id like to add something to this. Polish people are very proud of their sport stars as in every country in the world. In Poland though there exists some sort of snobbishness and most Polish arguements when it comes to sport are illogical. Polish people have what I see as a false pride in their sports and the stars. For example, noone in Poland really watched ski jumping until there was a famous Pole at the top, noone watched formula 1 until Kubica's entry into the sport and I have no doubt that when these guys retire noone will watch the sport again. If there suddenly was a famous Polish curling star, curling would be the greatest sport in the world to them. The only genuine fans I see in Poland at the moment are the football fans, the rest are just fickle.

I had an arguement with a Polish guy last week who insisted that his favourite basketball team, Sopot Prokom Trefl, was the greatest in the world. I challenged him with the fact that the Americans would walk all over them but he still insisted that his team was the best. Where is the logic in that.

I think it's a normal reaction, isn't it ?...If Germany had a great rubgy team, millions of Germans would watch evening games...but at the moment, rugby is quite unknown there.
If you're Welsh, you'd rather watch a football game between Wales and Scotland than a baseball game between Venezuela and Burkina Faso ;) LoL
But i agree, some sports like Formula 1 or ski jumping wouldn't "exist" in Poland if there were not good Poles there ;) But i think that now Kubica and Małysz have become stars, even after them, these sports will never really disappear. At least i hope so :)

as for ski jumping - the Four Hills Tournament has been on Polish TV for ages!
(and of course skiing world championship - including ski jumping), so I've been watching ski jumping since the early 80's, of course Polish TV didn't have transmissions from all the World Cup events, like it started after 2000/2001 season, but go figure, we had 3 TV channels in the 80's, so they covered only the most important events in all sports. Private TV stations appeared after the fall of the commies, sports channels even later (Canal + was the first one), some of them (Wizja TV) didn't make it, went bankrupt, because Polish society, in the 90's, wasn't ready for it because of economical reasons.
As for fans who attend the events on stadiums/hall - can you immagine how much it costed, compared to Polish salaries, to follow your favorites to other country for a tournament? Supporting your local club is cheap, a tram/bus ticket, entrance cost. Going, even to Hungary, for a Formula 1 race, is still expensive for most of the fans, when the TV didn't show the races (not so many years ago), how were Poles supposed to be fans of F1?
I don't like races, but I can understand the people who get fascinated by this or other discipline (except Strongmen and Gymnastics of course), even if they never watched it before (live or on TV screen).

Poor investment in athletics by the government. Poor attitude from the population about athletes. Non existent youth leagues. Poor media coverage of anything not Adam Małysz. Radwońska is only 18, so still has time, but the main thing was it was broadcast on Eurosport which most people can't watch. Rarely is there much support for a team other than the ones who happen to be winning at the time. There are good athletes here, but many don't get the support they need to really jump over the last hurdle so to speak. The amount of good polish athletes is also low because from what I understand is that if your an athlete your considered lame as in dumb. For whatever reason that might have a lot to do with it.

This is mostly in comparison to how we do things in the States and from what I see living here.

excuses excuses excuses ......dont need big money to become world champions

Ok so basically reasons or "excuses" don't work. I guess just saying Polish suck would be the best answer for you. It's about investment in training, changing pubic opinion to train young athletes, growing the exposure of the teams and the atheletes. But yeah I guess for anyone trying to stir the issue, Polish just suck at sports. Is that a better answer for someone like you? I guess the EPL teams are so great because players just come out of nowhere. No it's because they have money, training facilities for youth and marketing to bring more money in. The Champions League is always won by the biggest money teams in the world. Baseball in the U.S. is the same. The Yankees, Red Sox are great because they have the most money. The U.S. Olympic sports teams win more gold medals than anyone because we have the most money to support, train and build the infrastructure to win. All this money comes from marketing the teams, players and sport. This is something that really doesn't exist in Poland.