Records were broken in the luge and on the short track skate rink, as Polish athletes put their best foot forward in a bid for more medals

Wojciech Chmielewski and Jakub Kowalewski wore the red and white for Poland as they twice hurtled down the course at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre, achieving an impressive 9^th place in the men’s doubles luge. The Polish duo were 8^th after their first run, with a time of 58.99 seconds, only 0.735 seconds behind German leaders Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt.

For their second run, Chmielewski and Kowalewski posted a marginally slower time of 59.07, which saw them slide down one place into 9^th. This would not take the shine off their result which saw Poland break into the top 10 again at an Olympics for the first time since Innsbruck 1976.

Further records were broken by short track speed skater Michał Niewiński, who came last in the quarterfinals of the men’s 1500m, despite setting a new national record with a time of 2:12.852. Marking his debut Olympics with an impressive performance, Niewiński may feel aggrieved to have not qualified as he found himself in significantly the fastest race of the day. Whilst his time would have easily qualified him from all but one of the other 4 quarterfinals, this is a talent that Polish supporters will be able to get behind in 2026.

Meanwhile, fellow short speed track skater, Natalia Maliszewska, finally had the chance to demonstrate the anticipation shared across the country for her participation at the Olympics. The 26 year old, who had suffered a tumultuous start to her Games, was able to show her fight to be on the start line was worth the effort with a solid victory in her quarterfinal of the women’s 1000m.

Shortly after this, Maliszewska teamed up with Kamila Stormowska – who was unfortunate to lose out in her quarterfinal in the women’s 1000m by 0.17 seconds – Nikola Mazur and Patrycja Maliszewska for the women’s 3000m relay. The speed skaters finished 3^rd in their semi-final in a time of 4:10.074 – almost 6 seconds behind their next rival, China – advancing into the B final.

Elsewhere at the Games, in the individual Gundersen normal hill/10km, Szczepan Kupczak and Andrzej Szechowicz placed 34^th and 35^th respectively. In the event which combines ski jumping on the normal hill and a 10km cross-country race, neither athlete could capitalise on their promising practice round in the ski jumping, whilst they were both off the pace for the cross-country leg. In the women’s slalom, alpine skiers Magdalena Łuczak and Zuzanna Czapska were left ruing as to what could have been. Both skiers missed a gate in the early stages of their first run, ending their Olympic hopes for this year.