This year, the Summer Olympics will be held in Paris. Just before the start of the competition, we will find out who will be the flag bearer for the Polish team. This is the athlete who leads the delegation during the opening ceremony, carrying the national flag. The choice usually falls on an athlete who is a sports star in their country and has a good chance of winning a medal.
One of our medal hopes in the French capital will be Iga Świątek. The WTA world number one is currently competing in Rome, where she will face the world’s second-ranked player, Aryna Sabalenka, in the final on Saturday. At a press conference after the semifinal against Coco Gauff, we asked Iga Świątek how she would react to the proposal of being the flag bearer and whether she would be afraid of the associated curse.
Iga Świątek as Flag Bearer in Paris?
- It would definitely be a great honor, and I would be very happy. I'm not someone who focuses on curses - Iga Świątek began. What is the flag bearer’s curse?
No Polish flag bearer has won an Olympic medal since the 1992 Barcelona Games. Hence, there is a belief in Polish sports that whoever carries the flag during the opening ceremony will have bad luck during the competition. The most notable case involved Agnieszka Radwańska in London in 2012. Just weeks earlier, the tennis player had reached the Wimbledon final but was eliminated in the first round of the Olympic competition on the same courts.
The flag bearers at the last Tokyo Olympics, mountain biker Maja Włoszczowska and swimmer Paweł Korzeniowski, also failed to win medals. It was the first time our flag was carried by two athletes. In the past, the curse also struck Waldemar Baszanowski (Munich 1972), a two-time Olympic champion in weightlifting, among others.
Ultimately Anita Włodarczyk Przemysław Zamojski and will be the flag bearers of the Polish national team at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
Complicated Olympic Schedule
For Iga Świątek, the issue wouldn't be the flag bearer curse but the Olympic schedule. - As tennis players, we have a problem with the opening ceremony because it takes place the day before the first match. If I were to be 100 proc. professional, I probably wouldn’t participate in the ceremony. Unfortunately, that’s usually how the Olympic schedule looks. I’m a person who likes my routines, so I think I would have to miss the ceremony - added the world number one.
The opening event of the Paris Olympics will begin on July 26 at 7:30 PM. The Olympic tennis tournament starts the next day and will end on August 4. Iga Świątek is set to compete in singles and mixed doubles. The Olympics will run until August 11.
Poland has never won an Olympic medal in tennis. Iga Świątek will be a favorite for a medal due to her ranking, current form and the fact that the medal events will take place on the Roland Garros courts, where she has won Grand Slam titles.
The pressure on the tennis player will undoubtedly be immense, and we can only hope she fulfills her dreams. At the beginning of this year, Świątek admitted that her number one goal for this year is the Olympic Games.
