When Kasia Niewiadoma lines up in the women’s elite road race for Poland at the Paris Olympic Games on August 4 it will be her third time, and the 29-year-old’s experience is showing.
The understandable sense of being stressed and overwhelmed has been tamed by the athlete who first lined up at the event in 2016 as a 21-year-old – the second youngest rider in the race next to Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky – and took an impressive sixth place despite the ‘pressure and fear’ she felt then.
“The Olympics is enormous for my country, the Polish public, and people who don’t necessarily follow cycling closely. I take this race as an opportunity to help women’s cycling grow in Poland,” Niewiadoma said.
The nation has had a strong presence in the UCI rankings in recent years, finishing in sixth in 2023, and Niewiadoma’s consistent presence near the top of the results tallies has certainly played a big role in that but the sport that pulls the attention of the nation is football, and some others such as volleyball, motorcycle speedway and ski jumping also loom large, but not cycling.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…