Page 122 - Olympism in Socialism

representative of Austria, while two horse-riders;
Sergiusz Zahorski and Karol Rommel, competed
in the Russian Olympic team.
Following the First World War, Poland
regained its independence in the autumn of 1918.
In the following year the first sports authority was
set up. On October 12, 1919, the Polish
Committee for the Olympic Games was
established in Cracow, The Committee planned to
send the first Polish Olympic Learn to the
Antwerp Games. Unfortunately, the plan misfired
mainly because hostilities were still continuing
on Polish territory. It was not until 1924 that a
Polish team took part in the Olympic Games
(Paris).
From the table below it will be apparent that
twice over we had to start from the very
beginning. During the Second World War, Poland
was the only country in which the Nazi r3vaders
prohibited all sports activities. Young Poles died
in battle, prisons and extermination camps.
Among them were many famous pre-war
sportsmen including the Olympic gold-medal
winner in Los Angeles, Janusz Kusocinski —
coaches and sports activists. The level of Polish
sports at the end of the war was more or less
equal to that in 1912 and 1920.
The more than half-a-century lag was made
up by the Polish sportsmen in the 1948-58
period. This was mainly the result of the
reorganization of the physical training system in
1949 when sports became an integral part of
socialist education and culture. The Party and
the government, as well as the allied parties and
trade unions placed special emphasis on the
development of physical education.
The most characteristic features of these
changes. were: the introduction of sports in

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