By Tatum Spicer

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have just come to an end. It is such a remarkable and exciting event showcasing the incredible talent, diligence, resilience and team work of competitors from around the globe. This year was particularly inspiring, as athletes had to rally their spirits during a global pandemic, which meant there were no large crowds in the stadiums to cheer them on.

The first modern Olympics was held in Athens in 1896 but since then a lot has changed. This year alone in Tokyo 2020, we saw sporting events added, new venues built and COVID-specific changes made to the way the Olympics was run.

So did you know….

• 205 National Olympic Committees (NOC) + the IOC Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) competed.
• There were 42 competition venues.
• Five new sports were added to the programme for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, softball/baseball and surfing which as a result made the Tokyo 2020 Games more youthful and urban.
• Around 11,000 athletes participated in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
• Over 1,800 athletes from 186 NOCs were awarded Olympic Solidarity Tokyo 2020 scholarships.

As always, here at Polaron we were particularly interested in the European countries’ success. So we were stoked to see Team Poland’s success and were very impressed about their performance during these games. Their Gold Medal Achievements were the following:

• Dawid Tomala winning gold in the Men’s 50km Race Walk
• Poland winning gold in the 4 x 400m Relay Mixed
• Wojciech Nowicki winning gold in the Men’s Hammer Throw
• Anita Wlodarczyk winning gold in the Women’s Hammer Throw

Not only did they win four gold medals in a mix of events, the Polish team was not shy when it came to winning silver. Their Silver Medal Achievements were the following:

• Poland winning silver in the Women’s 4 x 400m Relay
• Maria Andrejczyk winning silver in the Women’s Javelin Throw
• Poland winning silver in the Women’s Kayak Double 500m
• Poland winning silver in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls
• Poland winning silver in the Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470

Finally the Polish team also had an impressive number of competitors come third place. Their Bronze Medal Achievements were the following:

• Patryk Dobek winning bronze in the Men’s 800m
• Pawel Fajdek winning bronze in the Men’s Hammer Throw
• Malwina Kopron winning bronze in the Women’s Hammer Throw
• Poland winning bronze in the Women’s Kayak Four 500m
• Tadeusz Michalik winning bronze in the Men’s Greco-Roman 97kg

If you have Polish ancestry, see if you’re eligible for Polish citizenship here so you can watch the next Olympics in 2024 as a Polish citizen!