Polish Olympic President Disappointed in Snowboarders

Piotr Nurowski, president of the Polish National Olympic Committee, criticised members of the Polish national team who did not qualify for the finals of their events and specifically members of Poland’s top snowboarding family, including Krakow student Michał Ligocki.

Both Ligocki and his cousin, Paulina Ligocka, suffered falls during both of their qualification runs in the half-pipe on Cypress Mountain near Vancouver, and Mateusz Ligocki, Michał’s brother, placed out the running in the snowboardcross. Nurowski commented that their performances were “below our expectations,” and that he did not wish “to be mean, but it seems to me that the goal of the otherwise very nice Ligockis was just to qualify for the Polish national team. None of them put up a fight.”

Nurowski has a long history in the Polish sports establishment. He was the vice president of the Polish Athletics Federation in the 1970s before going on to become a propaganda official for the socialist People’s Republic of Poland, then entering into a diplomatic career for the communist state. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he helped to found the Polish media giant, Polsat.

See also: A High-Flying Clan