Inside Polish Sports

On this special retrospective, we will talk about an event unsung outside of the Polish borders, but one that forever changed us as a sporting nation. In May 1953, two months after Poland was forced to mourn its chief abuser Stalin, Feliks "Papa" Stamm coached our amateur boxers to nine European Championship medals at Warsaw's Gwardia Hall.
Five of those medals were gold, and three came by beating the Ruskis in the finals. This is the story of how Stamm assembled his team of warriors and how even family tragedy and mortal disease could not stop us from finally imposing our will upon the enemy, even if only with fists instead of tanks.

The world is in awe and gives its gratitude to Piotr "Łatwogang" Garkowski and the folks at Cancer Fighters for their record charity livestream, which raised close to US$70 million. Athletes also chipped in to this nation-defining event with Lewy, Iga, Jan Błachowicz, Kuba Błaszczykowski, Piotr Zieliński and Vladimir Semirunniy all giving their money, time, gifts, and sometimes hair!
Iga herself had a tough weekend after only the second match retirement in her career. However, Irish Dave argues that once she gets to Paris, her Grand Slam record and mindset will help her win a fifth French Open. Only the true greats have achieved this plateau in a singular major.
Also, Totti, Ronaldinho and chums have some middle-aged fun in Chorzów, the ZondaCrypto/Polish Olympic Committee scandal gets even worse, and after the two hour marathon barrier was broken in London we discuss which sports would benefit from more regulated equipment.
The retrospective on the Amateur Boxing Euros 1953 will premiere on Thursday. Stay tuned!

The Polish Olympic Committee cannot pay the due prize money to our Olympic medalists from Milano Cortina because..............half that prize money is in Bitcoin-like tokens from the committee's chief sponsor ZondaCrypto. The exchange has been uncovered for having Russian mafia connections and losing over 99% of the inverstors' value. And what does disgraced chairman Radosław Piesiewicz do..........blame the government, of course!
Poland's only proper motor racing track in Poznań can be closed down.........because of noise limits??? In a forest? Although not even Formula 3 cars race there anymore? Some times health and safety needs are truly ridiculous!
And in happier news: Piotr Zielinski gets his 50th Serie A goal and why Antek Kowalski's Crucible debut cannot be wasted in the future like Kacper Filipiak's early potential.

Since Friday morning, the Polish Football family has been in shock and disbelief over the death of Jacek Magiera at the age of just 49. He may have achieved pretty much anything he could've dreamt of in the beautiful game: Polish champion as player and manager, Champions League nights against Ronaldo and Aubameyang, success with Śląsk Wrocław and Zagłębie Sosnowiec, and most recently Poland assistant under Jan Urban.
Yet it is not the professional dreams that have defined Jacek's life and the memories of and tributes to him. He said that his biggest dream was to live another twenty years to see his kids: Gosia and Jasiu, to have their kids. It is truly unfair that he didn't get to experience that. However, we can be sure that he is already the proudest tatuś is paradise.

On this historical retrospective we mark the golden anniversary of Polish Ice Hockey's finest hour. It may not be as lauded and mythic as the American Miracle on Ice, but our one and only victory over the Soviet Union on April 8, 1976, at the Katowice Spodek was truly as improbable as Hockey upsets could ever get. This is the story of how it unfolded and how it wouldn't have even taken place if not for goalie Andrzej Tkacz being taken off the hook after the SB wanted to arrest him!
Special thanks to Piotr Chłystek and his book "Cuda na Kiju"!
link: https://lubimyczytac.pl/ksiazka/5165852/cuda-na-kiju-niezwykla-historia-hokejowej-reprezentacji-polski

Polish Football's best era since the 1980's ended last night in Stockholm. And frankly we and our sanity are all the better for it. Because where does it say that Football must be our most popular sport just by acclamation? We are lucky to have had Lewy because he is the only star of his caliber we have produced over the past 40 years. And he sure didn't do it thanks to the structures that our beautiful game has. It's time to stop hoping for what is above our ceiling, which just got much lower.
Also, Kamil Stoch ended his spotless and Mount Rushmore-level career on Sunday, 20 years to the week since, in the same place, he met his wife Ewa. Their relationship is truly a gift to us all, just as much as his victories.

As we await the World Cup playoffs, let's take a look back at the most important match in Polish football history. 53 years ago an unfancied but hungry side came to the mecca of the beautiful game and, with a little verbal jab from Brian Clough, made Wembley into a buzz word for generations of Poles.
This is the story of how a "clown" named Jan Tomaszewski stopped Alf Ramsey's England and helped launch a golden era for the Biało-Czerwoni.

Poland awaits(and dreads) this Thursday's World Cup playoff semifinal against Albania as Łukasz Skorupski is injured and Jan Urban selects Bartosz Bereszyński instead of his Palermo teammate. Iga Świątek is shocked by Magda Linette in Miami and sacks her coach Wim Fisette. Frankly, whoever the replacement is, they have to keep Iga calm and aware of her mastery.
Also, Kacper Tomasiak, Kasia Niewiadoma and Michał Kwiatkowski all crash on skis and bikes, respectively(happily they weren't hurt), Kuba Szymański wins World Indoor gold and Kamila Sellier provides an update on her horrific Olympic eye injury.
Errata Disclamer: Marc Andre Ter Stegen moved to Girona(close enough, I guess!), whilst Vincenzo Montella manages Turkey, not Albania. Tonight we're facing Sylvinho's side(I guess I omitted him because he played 2 seasons for Arsenal and then beat us with Barca in the CL Final.................)

Apparently, the new USTA boss wants women to play best-of-five-setters in Grand Slams from the quarterfinals onwards. Iga is said to benefit from this move the most but even she understands that an extra two hours of Tennis isn't necessarily good for you!Also, Irish Dave and I discuss the Ekstraklasa big boys being hoisted by their own financial petards, the verdict in the Śląsk/Wisła forfeit saga, Łukasz Piszczek sacked as a rookie manager by GKS Tychy and the government's plans for a much-needed participation sports reform.

In this historical retrospective, we take a lookback at the godfather of Polish Tennis and how what should've been the biggest win of his career was derailed by Kirk Douglas and his wife! This is the story of Wojciech Fibak, a Renaissance man in more ways than one.