Poland at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Poland at the
2004 Summer Olympics
IOC codePOL
NOCPolish Olympic Committee
Websitewww.pkol.pl (in Polish)
in Athens
Competitors194 in 21 sports
Flag bearer Bartosz Kizierowski[1]
Medals
Ranked 23rd
Gold
3
Silver
2
Bronze
5
Total
10
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
Other related appearances
 Austria (1908–1912)
 Russian Empire (1912)

Poland competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's eighteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, except the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, because of the Soviet boycott. The Polish Olympic Committee (Polish: Polski Komitet Olimpijski, PKO) sent a total of 194 athletes to the Games, 132 men and 62 women, to compete in 21 sports. Men's volleyball was the only team-based sport in which Poland had its representation in these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in women's taekwondo.

The Polish team featured six defending Olympic champions from Sydney: race walker Robert Korzeniowski, rifle shooter Renata Mauer-Różańska, rowing pair Tomasz Kucharski and Robert Sycz, and hammer throwers Kamila Skolimowska, and Szymon Ziółkowski. Greco-Roman wrestler and 1996 Olympic champion Ryszard Wolny and sprint canoeist Michał Śliwiński (previously competed for the Soviet Union, Unified Team, and Ukraine) had made their fifth Olympic appearance as the most sophisticated athletes of the team. Show jumper Grzegorz Kubiak, aged 41, was the oldest athlete of the team, while rhythmic gymnast Martyna Dąbkowska was the youngest at age 15. Swimming star Bartosz Kizierowski, who finished fifth in Sydney four years earlier in the men's 50 m freestyle, became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[1]

Poland left Athens with a total of ten medals, three golds, two silver, and five bronze, the lowest in Summer Olympic history since 1956.[2] Seven of these medals were dominated by women, who constituted less than a third of all Polish athletes at these Games. Among the nation's medalists, two of them climbed the Olympic podium for the first time: Anna Rogowska, who beat her teammate Monika Pyrek to take home the bronze in women's pole vault,[3] and Otylia Jędrzejczak, who became the most decorated Polish athlete at these Games with three medals, including the nation's first gold in swimming.[4] Kucharski and Sycz managed to repeat their golden streak in the men's double sculls, while Korzeniowski ended an illustrious Olympic career with a historic milestone as the first athlete to defend his Olympic title in men's 50 km race walk for the third consecutive time.[5]

  1. ^ a b "Kizierowski chorążym polskiej ekipy" [Kizierowski will be the flag bearer for the Polish team]. Sport.pl (in Polish). Bankier.pl. 11 August 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  2. ^ "2004 Athens: Medal Tally". USA Today. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  3. ^ "Isinbayeva wins pole vault". BBC Sport. 24 August 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  4. ^ Andersson, Astrid (21 December 2004). "Olympic champion's heart of gold". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  5. ^ "Polish walker earns fourth Olympic gold". USA Today. 27 August 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2014.