Snowboarders Aleksandra Król and Oskar Kwiatkowski led the charge for Poland’s best chance of a medal on Day 4, both crashing out in the quarter-finals

Król and Kwiatkoski were competing in the women’s and men’s parallel giant slalom, respectively, and were both bidding to earn a medal in the knock-out competition. Both had comfortably made it into the last 16, and with a recent World Cup win in Simonhöhe, Austria, it was flagbearer Król who carried Poland’s main hopes of an Olympic medal.

A narrow first-round victory against Russia Olympic Committee’s Polina Smolentsova by 0.16 set-up a tough quarter-final against defending Olympic champion Ester Ledecka, who went on to regain her title after Król crashed out in their match-up.

Kwiatkowski faced a similar fate to Król, as he came up against Slovenian’s Tim Mastnak. The 25 year old missed a gate down the slalom course as he pushed to take the lead from Mastnak, resulting in a DNF. Kwiatkowski told Eurosport PL that he wanted to take the risk, but it didn’t pay off. Whilst an angry Kwiatkowski was left ruing his mistakes, it seems it was a risk worth taking as he lost to the eventual silver medallist.

Meanwhile, fellow snowboarders Weronika Biela-Nowaczyk and Aleksandra Michalik failed to qualify for the heats, finishing in 22^nd and 24^th, whilst the final men’s representative, Michał Nowaczyk, lost in the first round of the heats by an agonising 0.09 seconds to Austria’s Alexander Payer.

Across the Zhangijakou Zone, cross-country skiers Maciej Staręga and Kamil Bury competed in the men’s sprint. Staręga carried Polish hopes into the quarterfinals, after Bury had not been able to go beyond the qualifying run, leaving everything out on the course but losing out the battle on the final straight and finishing in 19^th in the final standings.

Whilst this reflected Staręga’s best performances this season, the same could not be said for Poland’s female cross-country skiers, who weren’t able to match expectation. Izabela Marcisz, Monika Skinder and Weronika Kaleta finished in 39^th, 42^nd and 50^th, respectively, all failing to qualify into the quarterfinals.

Klaudia Domaradzka was also in action in the women’s singles luge. The 21 year old was looking to capitalise on the 24^th position she had achieved from her two runs the previous day, but a mistake near the end of her third run resulted in a high speed crash to the finish line and an eventual 27^th place. Whilst disappointed not to progress, Domaradzka will be pleased to have not come to any harm and still compete in the upcoming team relay.

In the men’s induvial 20km, Grzegorz Guzik finished 49^th in the field of 92 biathletes. A flawless first round of shooting was followed by one mistake in each of the following three rounds, whilst his ski runs were off pace from the top of the field. Despite the gulf in class, Guzik can be pleased with performance, his second best result of the season.