GB No. 1(20)/96
OTHERS' OPINIONS
President Aleksander Kwaśniewski jumped at the idea of organising the Winter Olympiad
in Zakopane not out of his love for sport but surely in order to raise his poor records in
Podhale. During the World Cup Championship in ski jump Kwaśniewski tried to charm the
audience: "You may whistle there, near the firs, but I tell you, the Games will be
held in Zakopane."
The President did not mention how in the coming years he was going to convince successive ministers of finances to assign several millions of dollars from the budget for a motorway that would replace the present one which is one of the most dangerous roads in Poland; how he was going to convince serious investors to give ten of thousands of dollars for building new hotels that should be started today. (...)
Director of the Tatra Mountains National Park Gąsienica-Byrcyn fears the onrush of 200 thousands of spectators and troubles with tap water similar to the ones that occurred during competitions in 1993. He also mentions the capricious climate of the Tatras. (...) "Has anybody took to consideration the fact that the air in Zakopane is more polluted than in Chorzów, Silesia?" - asks the Director of TMNP.
Usually several serious companies tender for organisation of the Games. Today it is known that Zakopane will have to compete, among others, with the Swiss town of Sion. Also Sweden, Spain and Bulgaria have an appetite for the Olympiad. Now - 10 years before the Olympic flame is lit - preparing and forwarding the application seems to be beyond capabilities of the Polish party. The sense of reality suggests that organising the Olympic Games 2006 in Zakopane is as probable as Poland immediately entering the group of the seven most wealthy countries of the world.
Krzysztof Olejnik
reprinted from Biuletyn Informacyjny
Zarządu Głównego PKE, Feb. '96
translated by M. Maciejewska