Polish swimmer Katarzyna Wasick advanced to the final of the Olympic competition in the 50-meter freestyle in phenomenal style. The AZS AWF Katowice swimmer won her semi-final with a time of 24.23 seconds and advanced to the final with the third time. The phenomenal Swede Sarah Sjoestroem, swimming in the second semi-final, broke the Olympic record. It promises to be an exciting final on Sunday!
Earlier, Wasick performed brilliantly in the qualifying rounds, achieving a time three hundredths of a second worse than in the semi-final. She advanced with the second time then, but, as she emphasized, she was not sure of her strength. “There is joy, but also a slight relief, because this first start is always a certain uncertainty and although we trust our preparations, until we go out, feel the audience and jump into the pool, we do not know how we will swim,” said Wasick.
In her semi-final, Wasick beat Chinese Yufei Zhang by just one hundredth of a second, and five competitors advanced to the final from this series. In the second, the two fastest competitors in the semi-final swam: Swedish Sjoestroem, who broke the Olympic record with a time of 23.66 and was only five hundredths of a second behind her own world record, and American Grethen Walsh, who was six hundredths of a second faster than Wasick. It promises to be an exciting fight on Sunday, because there are definitely more candidates for the medal than there are places on the podium. Among them is a competitor from AZS AWF Katowice, who will have a chance to join the list of Polish sports heroes on Sunday. The last Olympic medal in swimming for Poland was won twenty years ago by Otylia Jędrzejczak, the current president of the Polish Swimming Association.
Wasick, who has been in Paris since the beginning of the Games, waited a long time for her individual start. However, this was not a problem for her. – Sometimes it is worth waiting for something cool and being patient. I think that the fact that I started at the end did not make me nervous. I simply gained from the fact that I could see the competitors I would be competing with, get used to the pool and simply leave today with more self-confidence – said the AZS AWF Katowice swimmer. The white and reds are supported by the main sponsor of the Polish Swimming Association PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA
The final with Wasick will be the second time a Polish athlete has participated in the Paris Games. Earlier, Krzysztof Chmielewski took fourth place in the 200-meter butterfly final. The final with the Polish athlete will open the last swimming session of the Paris Games on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.