6 swimmers told to go home after arriving at Olympics

(News)
– Being told that you did not qualify for the Olympic team is a blow to any athlete. But for six members of the Polish swim team, it was all the more devastating as they had already taken the Olympic oath and traveled to Japan. The six swimmers returned to Warsaw on Sunday – days after celebrating their departure – because the country’s swimming federation mistakenly sent too many athletes and had to reduce the total from 23 to 17, the Washington post reports. A Polish journalist shared a video athletes bidding farewell to other members of the delegation. Swimmers including Alicja Tchorz, who would have participated in her third Olympics, are calling for the resignation of the board of directors of the Polish Swimming Federation, reports the New York Times.

“Imagine dedicating 5 years of your life and fighting for another start at the most important sporting event… giving up your privacy and your job, sacrificing your family”, but “6 days before the grand final it’s happening. turns out you were being denied your dreams because of third party incompetence, “Tchorz wrote in a Facebook post. Pawel Slominski, president of the country’s swimming federation, released a statement saying he understood the anger of the swimmers, Reuters reports. “The reaction of the swimmers, their emotions, the attack on the Polish Swimming Federation is understandable to me and justified,” he wrote, while adding that the international federation behind the rules and the Polish Olympic Committee should also share the responsibility for the error. , because they did not provide the requested clarifications on the situation until last Wednesday. (Read more stories about the Tokyo Olympics.)