Poland at the 2024 Olympics

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Poland’s participation in the Summer Olympics!

Polish athletes have appeared in every Summer Olympics since 1924, except for the 1984 Summer Olympics because of the Soviet boycott. According to History.com, since the opening of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the competition has only been canceled three times: once during World War I (1916) and twice during World War II (1940, 1944). The 2020 COVID-19 outbreak postponed the Summer Olympic games for a year. Since its debut at the 1924 Olympics, Poland has won at least 79 Gold, 96 Silver, and 146 Bronze medals.

But here’s a little-known fact: at the 1928 Summer Olympics, Poland’s only athletic Gold Medal was won by Halina Konopacka in the women’s discus throw. However, at those Olympics Polish poet and writer Kazimierz Wierzyński also won a Gold Medal: for Literature — from 1912 until abandoned in 1948, in addition to athletic competitions, medals were also given for Architecture, Literature, Music, Painting, and Sculpture. All submitted works had to be original and sports-themed and, like their more athletic counterparts, the artists participating in the new “Pentathlon of the Muses” were supposed to be amateurs. You can read more about these artistic Olympic competitions here.

At last count, according to Wikipedia there were 211 Polish athletes planning to compete in almost all the sports represented at the Olympics.

Check out all the outfits in which the Polish Olympians will march and compete here.     

The opening ceremony is next Friday, July 26, but a few competitions will start on Wednesday and Thursday, July 24 and 25.

As reported by Reuters and other sources, Poland is sending troops and sniffer dogs to Paris as part of a multinational security force to help ensure the safety of this year’s Summer Olympics.