Before last year's parliamentary elections, President Andrzej Duda announced that Poland would like to apply to organize the Olympic Games in Warsaw in 2036. Almost a year later, current Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that his predecessors' idea would be maintained, but he proposed new dates: 2040 or 2044.
At Sport.pl, we talk to scientists and specialists from various fields and ask them about their opinion on the organization of the Games in Warsaw. – We hear from politicians that there is not enough money for purposes important to society and the economy. There is money in the budget, but the question is whether organizing the games is an expense we want to consider a priority. And a discussion about the Olympics is a discussion about priorities – Dr. Karolina Tetłak from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw told us a few weeks ago. Now we are talking to a sports sociologist, Ph.D. Radosław Kossakowski from the University of Gdańsk.
Dominik Senkowski: Poles want the Olympic Games in Warsaw 2040 or 2044 or is this just a topic invented by politicians?
Ph.D. Radosław Kossakowski: Today, this is certainly the idea of politicians who compete with each other in this field. The first one was President Andrzej Duda, who announced the Olympic Games last year, but in 2036. Now there is a later date, and the one related to 2044 is also associated with the centenary of the Warsaw Uprising, so it could be sold well, especially in the capital. It's a beautiful anniversary, but a risky move, because the International Olympic Committee avoids linking the games with any non-sporting sphere, especially politics. However, in the Polish narrative it would sound good that 100 years after its foundation, the city had recovered enough to organize the games.
The time perspective remains so distant that currently any politician can throw out a slogan similar to “the Olympics in Warsaw”. Of course, wishing everyone longevity, the question is whether Mr Tusk and Duda will be as politically active in 20 years as they are today? However, the public reception of this idea is not yet fully tested.
What do you mean?
– We had similar attempts in Krakow a few years ago, but the local society torpedoed the plans to organize the games. There was a strong campaign against the event, aimed at raising the issue of costs. It was a clear signal from society. Today the situation seems ambivalent.
The perspective is so far away that it is actually difficult for us to respond to it rationally as a society. Some people, of course, have criticized the idea of the Olympics in 20 years from the very beginning, but there are also voices indicating that perhaps we as a country will be at a level that will allow us to organize competitions of this rank without any great burden, especially economic ones.
Where does the belief that we will be able to organize the Olympics come from?
– I believe that it will be easier for us to organize ourselves under the influence of a specific plan, which will be – as in this case – around the Olympics, rather than focusing on organic work. We also have experience with Euro 2012. There were some delays, but in the end, much of the work was completed by the start of the football tournament or shortly thereafter. However, this does not give us good evidence that we need a very expensive event to make another civilizational and modernization leap. However, someone will say: OK, but maybe we can't do otherwise, so let's hold these games? Perhaps this is part of the specificity of our culture and society that such great goals mobilize us more.
Costs are still the biggest problem related to organizing the Olympics. How are expenses perceived by society today?
– The French have shown this year that they can cope with the Olympics without spending the largest sums, and thus also mitigating possible social protests. However, this was due to the specific nature of the country, which was already largely adequately prepared for a similar event.
Most of the Olympic organizers overspent their budget. In Tokyo 2021 several times, also due to the pandemic. Critics always point to the example of Montreal in 1976 – the city still paid off its debts in the 21st century. In turn, supporters remind that the 1984 games in Los Angeles ended with even a small profit. These were the first commercial games where a properly selected manager found sponsors, including: McDonalds company.
There is also an argument that in recent years Olympic competitions have been mainly used by countries that are not necessarily fully democratic, such as Russia or China.
– There is some truth in this, because such countries do not take into account the financial or human costs. On the other hand, however, we have a return to the Olympic idea in democratic countries. This year the competition took place in Paris, in four years it will take place in Los Angeles, and in eight years in Brisbane. Representatives of less democratic countries failed to appropriate this event. Public opinion's criticism of ecology was also effective in this field.
The authorities in Brazil invested in the Rio 2016 games, the FIFA World Cup was held there two years earlier. In the background, we observed numerous protests against shifting financial resources from other purposes, such as health care or education, to sports and infrastructure. Would our society be ready for similar reactions?
– The mobilization campaign in Krakow shows that it is possible. No one was burning tires in front of the Krakow City Hall at that time, but the influence of the protesters was so strong that the organizers' plans were stopped. Today, the Internet is a stage of action and mobilization for similar actions. The authorities then saw that there was no consent to her ideas. It is also an advantage of functioning in a democracy when people can oppose and force certain actions or lack of action on the part of politicians.
Before Euro 2012, there were protests from feminist organizations, which pointed out that there was a lack of, for example, kindergartens or nurseries, and that public money was to go to a sports event mainly for men who would play football and watch the competition. However, the tone of this opposition was not the greatest, and there will always be similar groups of protesters, although on a national scale it is certainly more difficult to create such pressure as locally in Krakow, and Warsaw is more cosmopolitan. Today, a strong argument may be the question why the government is involved in the Olympics and not, for example, social construction. We are seeing how urgent this problem has become recently.
Last year, the European Games were held in Krakow. How were they received by the public?
– They passed without much interest, although the number of participants and disciplines was impressive. It was not revealed that some of these games had the status of the European Championships, and others were held as part of the qualifications for the Olympic Games in Paris. Organizationally, we coped, but the challenge was certainly much smaller than in the case of Warsaw 2040 or 2044. Moreover, the publicity is completely different – the European Games are smaller even than the Volleyball World Championships.
Could Poland gain image by organizing the games in the capital?
– Combining sport with the Warsaw Uprising could resonate well. This would be a space to connect history with the changes that will take place in Poland by then. 100 years after its establishment, we are able to organize the largest sports event in the world. Symbolically, this can be played perfectly – from a city ruined by military operations to the organizer of the games. You don't even need big marketing companies here, because it's a self-play story.
Outside, we could also distance ourselves from the belief that “this cannot happen in Poland.” We already experienced this during Euro 2012, when the BBC showed a documentary suggesting that fans from Polish stadiums would return in coffins due to the scale of the danger, but ultimately this did not happen.
We have the experience of the last Olympic competitions in Paris. How are the Olympics as an idea perceived in Poland today?
– The Games are terribly commercialized, but they still have an idealistic character, especially since we are starting to feel a glut of other sports events, especially football ones. Too many matches, the viewership of football matches drops. At the games held every four years, we observe disciplines that we do not follow every day, such as rowing, climbing or kayaking. This makes the Olympics a real celebration, they have not become overrated like football, which, in my opinion, is slowly becoming inauspicious.