USA Today predictions - Poland

To follow up on my international comments on the USA Today medal tracker, let's see how my home country stands. They predict 15 medals (including only 2 gold ones). Which is a rather low number, also compared to the previous optimistic estimate of 23.

First, let's see where they got it spot-on:

Boxing, Women's Lightweight - Karolina Graczyk 3rd
Silver in WC. Go get 'em!

Women's K2 500m - Mikolajczyk/Konieczna 3rd
2nd in Beijing. Konieczna already brought medals from three different Olympics, a fourth one would be awesome for her!

MTB women - Maja Wloszczowska 2nd
That's the bad case scenario, mind you!

Women's double sculls - 3rd

Magdalena Fularczyk & Julia Michalska won the WC before, thus definitely doable.

Men's RS:X - Piotr Myszka 2nd
2010 World Champion.

Women's RS:X - Zofia Klepacka-Noceti 3rd
Windsurfing World Champion.

100m Butterfly - Konrad Czerniak 2nd
2nd in the WC too, can anybody apart from Phelps beat him?

Men's Discus Throw - Piotr Malachowski 3rd
2nd in Beijing, 2nd in WC, European Champion, übercool guy too!

Men's Shot Put - Tomasz Majewski 3rd
Speaking of übercool guys: Malachowski's drinking buddy. Fear the beard!

Men's Volleyball - 3rd
Anything is possible. As in, pretty pretty please!!!

Weightlifting, Men's 105kg - Marcin Dolega 3rd
Triple WC, only 4th in Beijing though, having lost because of the infamous body weight difference. Safe bet!

Weightlifting, Men's 85kg - Adrian Zielinski 1st
That's why I got this ticket! It will be tricky though. He became the WC in 2010, finished third in 2011, and soon after his coach died tragically. How will it affect him?

Wrestling, Greco-Roman, 84kg - Damian Janikowski 2nd
2nd in WC. Hey, it's been a while, so why not?!

Now, where are they wrong, in my opinion?

Men's K1 200m
Mark my words: Piotr Siemionowski is not finishing this race second. He's going for gold!

 And yes, I know we've suffered from an awful jinx over the last decade or so: every time Poland was supposed to dominate water sports at the Games, and every time we failed. Until now, I say! But because the Universe must remain in harmony...

Women's K1 200m
Marta Walczykiewicz for gold?
3 times silver at the WC, but zero Olympic experience. Forgive my scepticism...

Men's Quadruple Sculls - 4th
2008 Olympic Champions, 2009 World Champions, 2010 European Champions. Now in dire straits after a freak injury to Adam Korol - the most important member of the team. Can "the Terminators" win one more medal before retiring collectively?

Women's tennis - Agnieszka Radwanska outside top 8
Say whut?!

Men's Handball - 7th
In other news, they failed to qualify...

800m Men - Adam Kszczot outside top 9
Hello?

Women's Pole Vault - Anna Rogowska 5th, Monika Pyrek 8th
Rogowska is the 2009 World Champion, Pyrek - with her personal best of 4,82m - can be dangerous too.

Men's Pole Vault - Pawel Wojciechowski 5th, Lukasz Michalski outside top 8
Wojciechowski is a 22-year-old reigning World Champion, for God's sake! Michalski - only 1 year older - finished 4th in Daegu.