They had already arrived in Tokyo, where they were supposed to prepare for their participation in the Olympic Games. But Alicja Tchórz, Bartosz Piszczorowicz, Aleksandra Polańska, Mateusz Chowaniec, Dominika Kossakowska and Jan Hołub will not fight for medals.
Your dream of the Olympics has broken because the Polish Swimming Association made a mistake in the registration process.
The six who were called up as relay swimmers in the Polish contingent belonged to the 23-strong Polish contingent. They were not even allowed to start.
The Polish team should have taken a maximum of ten relay only athletes to Tokyo for their five qualified relays. However, 14 relay candidates and swimmers with B standards who were not confirmed as participants by the world association were nominated.
Only those who have undercut the A norm will definitely qualify for the Olympic Games. In contrast to world championships, swimmers with a B standard must first be confirmed as a participant by the world association. This was not the case. The consequence: Poland had to downsize its team for Tokyo.
Athletes are calling for those responsible to resign
In the meantime, several Polish swimmers have signed an open letter to Paweł Słomiński, President of the Polish Swimming Federation. In it they demand the immediate resignation of the entire board of the association. “Some of us have been robbed of the dream of Olympia. Those who are allowed to stay in Tokyo are left in a bad mood and nervous, «it says.
Chowaniec, one of the returnees, posted a video of his arrival at the Polish airport on Instagram. “Indeed, I hope to finally wake up from this nightmare. I am terribly bitter and sorry that I am because of the incompetent people at PZP (Polish Swimming Association, editor’s note) am in Poland and not in Japan, «he writes.
From the association’s side it is said that one can understand the reaction of the athletes. They tried to enable as many athletes as possible to participate in the Olympic Games and applied for individual starts for athletes with B-Norm at the Fina. The Polish association would not have received the rejection of this application until the team was already on their way to Tokyo.
