WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Friday that his country will strive to host the Summer Olympics for the first time, with a particular eye on the Games in 2040 and 2044.
Tusk was speaking at a sports field in Karczew, a town south of Warsaw, where boys were doing soccer training behind him.
“Poland will formally make efforts to host the Olympic Games. Life will show whether this will be a realistic goal, but we will take it seriously," Tusk said.
Tusk explained that 2040 and 2044 were the earliest realistic dates, given other hosting decisions made by the IOC.
He said he dedicated the decision to today's 10, 12, 15-year-olds as he also pledged investments to renovate and expand youth sports training facilities.
“I probably won’t be running around the pitch when the Olympics are in Poland,” said the 67-year-old premier, himself an amateur but avid soccer player. “But I can do a lot over the next few years to make this dream a real project."
Tusk's announcement comes after a poor display by Poland at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where the country won only one gold.
His allies in the centrist Civic Platform party welcomed the move, saying it would create opportunities to develop the nation's sporting infrastructure.
Tusk's right-wing opponents criticized him, saying other projects deserved more attention.
There was even criticism from the Left, which belongs to his governing coalition.
“A country with one Olympic gold medal. I know that the prime minister likes to build stadiums, but really, maybe first let’s build a decent Olympic team and spend money (rationally) on it, instead of ridiculing ourselves at our own event,” a left-wing lawmaker, Anna Maria Zukowska, tweeted on the X platform.
Poland won 10 medals altogether in Paris and took 42nd place in the overall standings, making it the country’s worst performance since 1956.
Poland has also yet to stage a Winter Olympics, although it did co-host the 2012 European Soccer Championship along with Ukraine.
Standing alongside Tusk, Sports Minister Slawomir Nitras said: “I saw the Games in Paris and I can say that from the organizational side we are able to organize such an event. I think Polish sport is waiting for it."
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk pauses as he speaks, during a news conference following his meeting with Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte at the government's headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A billionaire stepped out for the first private spacewalk Thursday, teaming up with SpaceX on the daring endeavor hundreds of miles above Earth.
Tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew waited until their capsule was depressurized before popping open the hatch. Isaacman emerged first, joining a small elite group of spacewalkers who until now had included only professional astronauts from a dozen countries.
“Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world," said Isaacman.
The commercial spacewalk was the main focus of the five-day flight financed by Isaacman and Elon Musk’s company, and the culmination of years of development geared toward settling Mars and other planets.
All four on board donned SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits to protect themselves from the harsh vacuum. They launched on Tuesday from Florida, rocketing farther from Earth than anyone since NASA’s moonwalkers. The orbit was reduced by half — to 460 miles (740 kilometers) — for the spacewalk.
This first spacewalking test, expected to last about two hours, involved more stretching than walking. The plan called for Isaacman to keep a hand or foot attached to it the whole time as he flexed his arms and legs to see how the new spacesuit would hold up. The hatch sported a walker-like structure for extra support.
After about 15 minutes outside, Isaacman was replaced by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis to go through the same motions.
Each had 12-foot (3.6-meter) tethers but no intention of unfurling them or dangling at the end unlike what happens at the International Space Station, where astronauts routinely float out to do repairs at a much lower orbit.
More and more wealthy passengers are plunking down huge sums for rides aboard private rockets to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Other have spent tens of millions to stay in space for days or even weeks. Space experts and risk analysts say it’s inevitable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking, deemed one of the most dangerous parts of spaceflight after launch and reentry but also the most soul-stirring.
This operation was planned down to the minute with little room for error. Trying out new spacesuits from a spacecraft new to spacewalking added to the risk. So did the fact that the entire capsule was exposed to the vacuum of space.
Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a former Air Force Thunderbird pilot, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon stayed strapped to their seats to monitor from inside. All four underwent intensive training before the trip.
Isaacman, 41, CEO and founder of the Shift4 credit card-processing company, has declined to disclose how much he invested in the flight. It was the first of three flights in a program he’s dubbed Polaris; this one was called Polaris Dawn. For SpaceX’s inaugural private flight in 2021, he took up contest winners and a cancer survivor.
Until Thursday, only 263 people had conducted a spacewalk, representing 12 countries. The Soviet Union’s Alexei Leonov kicked it off in 1965, followed a few months later by NASA’s Ed White.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the start of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image made from a SpaceX video shows the crew of the first private spacewalk led by tech billionaire Jared Isaacman inside the capsule, Thursday Sept. 12, 2024. (SpaceX via AP)
This image provided by SpaceX on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, shows a view of Earth and the Dragon capsule's Skywalker spacewalk platform shortly after the Polaris Dawn crew launched into an orbit. (SpaceX via AP)
