Inside Polish Sports

Adeu Polaco

There is still something is our eyes after Lewy's farewell to Camp Nou on Sunday Night. It is surreal that his four seasons there have gone in a blink of a eye, almost as sureal as the fact itself that a Pole was the main star of the world's most famous and beloved club. Knowing Robert he doesn't need to take the sultan's ransom (90 million Euro a year!) to sign with Al-Hilal, but reports say that Chicago Fire might've beaten them with the offer. In the Ekstraklasa Legia somehow might end in the European places, Lech celebrates its 10th title and the final day might just become our equivalent of eye porn! Also, Ewa Pajor can win the treble with the Barca Women and Iga breaks her semifinal duck after......10 months?!

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Robert Lewandowski's achievements by now are so expected that we seem to forget how extraordinary they are. With Barca clinching the LaLiga, he has now won FOURTEEN domestic league titles in just eighteen top flight seasons. He and Wojciech Szczęsny acted accordingly during the bus parade, including some off-cut Jan Tomaszewski impressions! Also, Iga re-finds her mojo in Rome, Wisła celebrates its promotion with manager Mariusz Jop repelling his own goal sins, Wieczysta might not get promoted at all as owner wants to work with Wisła instead, Tymek Kucharczyk wins at Indy and my autopsy all the reasons why our Hockey boys will spend another year in the second tier purgatory.

Scudetto Doppio

Piotr Zieliński set off a Scudetto party at San Siro as his goal helped Inter win their 21st Italian title and Zielu's second after winning it with Napoli three years ago. Meanwhile, in Porto Kiwior, Bednarek and Pietuszewski celebrated their own domestic crown. When did I hear that before: Three Polish guys in one club, hmmmmmmmmmmm........? Also, Wisła are all but promoted, Lech are all but champions, Ewa Pajor is all but a CL winner with Barca, Jeremy Sochan is all but sitting on the Knicks bench, and the Polish Luge head coach was all but fired through..........a Facebook job advert. Episode introduced by the one and only New York Islanders legend Mariusz Czerkawski, whom I met at the Division I A World Championships in Sosnowiec on Sunday! Full review of that tournament in next week's episode.

1953: Stalin(ism) Knocked Out

On this special retrospective, we will talk about an event unsung outside of the Polish borders, but one that forever changed us as a sporting nation. In May 1953, two months after Poland was forced to mourn its chief abuser Stalin, Feliks "Papa" Stamm coached our amateur boxers to nine European Championship medals at Warsaw's Gwardia Hall. Five of those medals were gold, and three came by beating the Ruskis in the finals. This is the story of how Stamm assembled his team of warriors and how even family tragedy and mortal disease could not stop us from finally imposing our will upon the enemy, even if only with fists instead of tanks.

We're Still Here

The world is in awe and gives its gratitude to Piotr "Łatwogang" Garkowski and the folks at Cancer Fighters for their record charity livestream, which raised close to US$70 million. Athletes also chipped in to this nation-defining event with Lewy, Iga, Jan Błachowicz, Kuba Błaszczykowski, Piotr Zieliński and Vladimir Semirunniy all giving their money, time, gifts, and sometimes hair! Iga herself had a tough weekend after only the second match retirement in her career. However, Irish Dave argues that once she gets to Paris, her Grand Slam record and mindset will help her win a fifth French Open. Only the true greats have achieved this plateau in a singular major. Also, Totti, Ronaldinho and chums have some middle-aged fun in Chorzów, the ZondaCrypto/Polish Olympic Committee scandal gets even worse, and after the two hour marathon barrier was broken in London we discuss which sports would benefit from more regulated equipment. The retrospective on the Amateur Boxing Euros 1953 will premiere on Thursday. Stay tuned!