2020 Olympics: Poland forced to send 6 swimmers home after bringing too many to Tokyo
Poland accidentally brought too many swimmers to the Olympics.
The PZP, Poland's swimming federation, was forced to send six athletes home from the Tokyo Olympics after 23 swimmers were sent to the Games. FINA — swimming's governing body — rules cap the number of swimmers at 17.
"I would like to emphasize that at every stage of decision-making, the PZP Management Board and I personally, we were guided by the desire to allow as many players and coaches as possible to take part in IO," PZP president Pawel Slominski said in a statement (via Google Translate). "We are constantly analyzing all the events and trying to answer the question whether or not at which point we failed to complete any formalities. We made a mistake."
Slominski said in his four-page statement that the federation did not receive clear guidance earlier in the summer from FINA that the six "B standard" swimmers would be unable to travel to the Games before the team left for the competition. The team said it had asked FINA if those swimmers had qualified for the Games and was not told that they hadn't. Poland had multiple relay teams qualify for the Olympics through the qualifying processes and the B standard swimmers who are unable to swim at the Olympics were set to compete in individual events.
The statement said that the PZP didn't find out that the swimmers couldn't compete in their events until July 14 — after they had flown to Tokyo.
"Throughout this accreditation procedure, until the closing of the reporting system to the IO on [July 5], and later [until July 14], as the President of the PZP, I did not receive a clear message from FINA or the Polish Olympic Committee that our request to accept the entry of 6 competitors with the B standard to compete in the individual events was rejected," the statement said.
Reuters said that the swimmers forced to go home were Mateusz Chowaniec, Jan Holub, Dominika Kossakowska, Bartosz Piszczorowicz, Aleksandra Polanska and Alicja Tchorz.
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