IOC code POL Competitors 217 in 22 sports | Website www.pkol.pl (Polish) | |
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NOC Polish Olympic Committee Flag bearer Agnieszka Radwańska (opening)
Michał Jeliński (closing) Medals
Ranked 24th Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
3
1
7
11 | ||
Poland competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's twentieth appearance at the Summer Olympics, having missed 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 218 athletes to the Games, 130 men and 88 women, to compete in 22 sports.
Poland left London with a total of 11 Olympic medals (3 gold, 1 silver, and 7 bronze), tying with Beijing for the nation's overall number of medals. Two of the medals were awarded to the team in athletics, sailing, and weightlifting. Among the nation's medalists were shot putter Tomasz Majewski, who successfully defended his Olympic title from Beijing, and double sculls pair Magdalena Fularczyk and Julia Michalska, who became the first Polish women to claim an Olympic rowing medal in 32 years. Windsurfers Przemysław Miarczyński and Zofia Klepacka recaptured their nation's success in sailing, as they each won the bronze medal.
Several Polish athletes, however, suffered setbacks at these Olympic games. Tennis player Agnieszka Radwańska, who ranked second by the Women's Tennis Association, was surprisingly eliminated in the first round of women's singles. Meanwhile, the men's indoor volleyball team, champions of the 2012 FIVB World League, failed to advance into the semi-finals for the third consecutive time, after losing out to Russia in the quarterfinals. Star sailor and double Olympic medalist Mateusz Kusznierewicz, and the men's quadruple sculls team, led by Michał Jeliński, finished farther from the medal standings in the final race.
Delegation
Polski Komitet Olimpijski (POK) selected a team of 218 athletes, 130 men and 88 women, to compete in 22 sports; it was the nation's fourth-largest team sent to the Olympics. 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 boxing, equestrian eventing, rhythmic gymnastics, and taekwondo. Athletics was the largest team by sport, with a total of 60 competitors.
The Polish team included five past Olympic champions, two of them defending (shot putter Tomasz Majewski, and the men's quadruple sculls team, led by Michał Jeliński). Five Polish athletes, on the other hand, competed at their fifth Olympic games: rowers Marek Kolbowicz and Adam Korol, sailor and double medalist Mateusz Kusznierewicz, hammer thrower and former champion Szymon Ziółkowski, and sprint kayaker and three-time medalist Aneta Konieczna. Dressage rider Katarzyna Milczarek, at age 46, was the oldest athlete of the team, while relay swimmer Diana Sokołowska was the youngest at age 17.
Other notable Polish athletes featured table tennis player Natalia Partyka, who competed for the second time at both Olympic and Paralympic games, swimmer and triple Olympic medalist Otylia Jędrzejczak in the women's butterfly event, double Olympic medalist Sylwia Gruchała in women's foil fencing, windsurfer and multiple-time world champion Przemysław Miarczyński, and sisters Agnieszka and Urszula Radwańska, who both played in the women's tennis doubles. Agnieszka Radwańska, who ranked second by the Women's Tennis Association, became the first Polish female flag bearer at the opening ceremony.