a feeling of pride. Polish Sochi - part I

It's been almost a week and I'm still  feeling some kind of emptiness. The tears are slowly coming to my eyes and it's not due to the fact, I don't know what to do in the afternoons, but because that  I'm really, really proud of almost everything what happened in subtropical, Russian city.

I'm proud of you Poland!

Well. Poland is not a sports power in the world. We're not like Russia or the USA, which are represented by many talented athletes and always win most competitions, but that handful of Polish athletes, which was in Russia, achieved something unusual, something what is rarely seen in my country.

That singular tournament for people of Poland was initiated by Kamil Stoch. I'm not afraid to tell you all, that right now he is the king! During the one Olympics, that man did something, which couldn't have been realized by many superiored ski jumpers over all their sports careers.

In my first post here, I was writing about the "Man who made us cry". I was writing about the first gold medal, but it's said that the history tends to repeat itself... Kamil permanently immortalized himself by being the third (after Matti Nykanen and Simon Ammann), in the history of that discipline, jumper who had won two gold medals at the one Olympics. Pole, his second medal, won with 1,3 point margin over Noriaki Kasai - 41 year-old Japanese and I don't actually want to talk about Kamil's victory. Why? Because of that:

Moment, when 27 year-old Olympic champion bowes to 16 years older Kasai in a gesture of respect. Maybe this is something normal for you or it doesn't pay your attention, but I was just speechless. I'm so thankful to the photographer who took this photo, moments like that one, should be saved for ever! I was so proud that the won, so proud when I heard Polish anthem. My pride reached the sky at the time I saw this...

May I shall leave ski jumping right now and move to the sport my dad really loves. Speed skating!

Speed skater - Zbigniew Bródka, won the first Olympic medal in the history of Polish speed skating, the first and the golden one. In the 1500 m final, Zbigniew defeated Koen Verweij with the result 1:45,006, but the difference between them was incredibly small... 0,003s! He started to write his own legend there.

His "American dream" in Russian version came true. To make this story more fascinating, I'd like to mark that Mr Bródka is not just a sportsman. He doesn't spend all his day training, exercising and preparing to the tournaments - he is a fireman! His profession requires sacrifices. Services in a fire brigade and rescue operations are his every-day reality. To make you more interested in his "way" I say only that before he helped his teammates in winning bronze medal at the Olympics, he had asked his friends and family for the money support. I found out, that Polish association hadn't fully sponsored him. It's pretty ridiculous, that such a talented man like Zbigniew didn't have the assistance from federation...

Thanks to all team of Poland, to Justyna Kowalczyk and our girls - speed-skaters, silver medalists. I'm sorry I'm not going to write about you, but to be honest - I don't really like watching women "in action". It's always something missing here for me. (It seems I have got the next topic :) )