On day 2 of the Sochi Olympics, Kamil Stoch of Poland landed a perfect jump of 103.5 meters to win his first gold medal in men’s normal hill ski jumping. (Whatever normal means as opposed to abnormal.) It is Poland’s first and only medal so far in the Sochi Olympics.
Sochi is Stoch’s third Olympics, having placed fifth in Turin 2006, and sixth in Vancouver 2010. He first competed in the World Cup in 2004 at age 16, and today remains a champion on the world circuit. He is only the second Pole to earn gold (I think), following Wojciech Fortuna’s gold medal in Sapporo 1972. He follows in the footsteps of Poland’s third most famous name, Adam Malysz who won four medals (no gold) at Salt Lake City 2002, and Vancouver 2010.
And on an Olympic note, had I searched the Internet even further, I would have discovered that Krakow Poland is one of five cities that has submitted a bid to host the 2022 winter games. My understanding is that it is a joint bid with the town of Jasna, Slovakia, which some question how strong a two-country bid is. The winning host country will not be announced until July 2015, but I’m sure Henry would be stunned to find his home town preparing to host a world Olympics. He personally attended Olympics in Hungary and Mexico. He skiied often in the Tatra Mountains where the ski resort of Zakopane is located outside Krakow.
The other four contenders are Beijing, China; Lviv in Ukraine – currently under question due to political unrest; Oslo Norway, and Almaty in Kazakhstan. The Kazakhstan location reminds me of a running commercial Rick and I heard in our Warsaw hotel room ‘Invest in Kazakhstan.’ We thought it funny at the time, but then, I’m obviously not up on the news in Kazakhstan. Apparently Kazakhstan is up and coming, just as Poland is. Who knew?
The cost and size of hosting the Olympics would seem to preclude many contenders – Poland estimates the cost of hosting at $1.7 billion.
Information gathered from various news sources, including Olympic (dot) org.
Undated photo is from Henry’s personal photo album, skiing in the Tatra Mountains; unidentified woman.