It was a subdued day for Poland’s stars in the cross-country skiing, speed skating and luge, with only one top 10 result for the red and whites

That result came in the luge, where Klaudia Domaradzka, Mateusz Sochowicz, Wojciech Chmielewski and Jakub Kowalewski took part in the team relay. The event is a combination of the previous luge events at the Olympics (women’s single, men’s single, men’s double), only each leg takes place immediately after the previous teammate crosses the line and hits a touchpad, in effect, passing on the baton of the relay. The clock continues until the last run is completed, giving each team a cumulative time.

The event was introduced in Sochi 2014, in which Poland finished 8^th. This is a position Poland might wish to call home, as they repeated that feat four years later in PyeongChang 2018 and again in Beijing with a time of 3:07.136. This was a result which would please the team, but not excite them.

Sochowicz confirmed this by taking no time to address how the team can improve, in an interview with Polish state broadcaster TVP Sport. “We’ve shown our full strength, but we are a little dissatisfied because there is still a significant difference between us and the countries competing for medals. Again I’m underlining the point that, our main weaknesses are the lack of a track [in Poland] and a larger coaching team.”

Questions will also be asked about what improvements need to be made in the cross-country skiing team as Izabela Marcisz, Monika Skinder, Karolina Kukuczka and Magdalena Kobielusz once again took to the course at the Zhangjikaou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre in the women’s 10km classic.

From the off, Poland had hopes at the prospect of a medal, when Marcisz – a protégé of former Olympic champion Justyna Kowalczyk-Tekieli – attacked the first half of the race hard. However, despite the impressive opening display, the challenges of the course took it’s toll and the 21 year old finished 29^th. Skinder, Kukuczka and Kobielusz finished in 49^th, 64^th and 78^th, respectively.

Whilst this is still a relatively young team with a large amount of potential, there will be a mixed feeling of how they have performed so far at the Games. Today, rumours surfaced of a possible rift between Marcisz and Skinder, which will not do much to quash concerns of not maximising the talents of a promising generation.

The only search for answers in the speed skating was what could have been for Magdalena Czyszczoń. The 26 year old footed the ranking of the 12 skaters in the women’s 5000m. Czyszczoń has had a difficult Games, having tested positive for Covid-19 in Beijing which has disrupted her training with 8 days of isolation.