Olympian Star Salutes Mentor
Justyna Kowalczyk, Poland's star of the Vancouver Winter games, has written an open letter to Piotr Nurowski, former President of the Polish Olympic committee. Mr. Nurowski was one of the 96 victims of the Smolensk air disaster on April 10th.
In the letter, Ms. Kowalczyk, who won three of Poland's six medals, including her country's first gold since 1972, said that "the enormity of the tragedy" had still not sunk in.
She described Nurowski as "irreplaceable... a great father of our Olympic family, a great man, and above all, a great fan and friend to all Polish athletes."
She thanked him for "seeing athletes as human beings and not medal-making machines."
Kowalczyk ended by saying that she would see him at the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014: "They won’t have a pass for you, true, but... we will smuggle you in in our hearts."