Her successor is due to be announced on Thursday (April 17) following an Extraordinary Assembly of the Bid Committee.

But despite the problems caused by the leadership void, Prime Minister Tusk, a staunch supporter from the outset, remains confident it will not prove the final nail in the coffin of an already flagging bid. 

"I'm sorry for Jagna Marczulajtis-Walczak, because she put a lot of heart and dedication to the project of hosting the Olympics," he said. 

"But the decision that has been taken is a good decision." 

The resignation of Jagna Marczulajtis-Walczak over the weekend was both a shock and a major blow for Kraków 2022 ©Facebook



It is not yet known who the replacement will be but, as pressure builds in the five horse race in which Kraków is up against Almaty, Beijing, Lviv and Oslo, the resignation of Marczulajtis-Walczak is a bitter blow less than three months before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) put forward an unspecified number of Applicants to the Candidature stage of the contest.

However Marek Kozak, a specialist in regional development from the University of Warsaw, also insisted to Dziennik Polski that Kraków's chances remain alive despite change in leadership, and depend most of whether a big enough budget is put forward.

A comparison with London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, where Barbara Cassani was replaced by Sebastian Coe as bid leader at a similar stage a year before the decision was made in Singapore in 2005, also offers some crumbs of comfort. 

The resignation follows the decision for a referendum to be held in Kraków next month over whether to go ahead with the Olympic bid and, after calling for the referendum in order to enhance the legitimacy of the bid, Kraków Mayor Jacek Majchrowski is confident it will be passed by the people when they come to the ballot box on May 25.

But there is a recent history of referendums on Olympic bids failing, as has already been seen with Munich and Davos/St Moritz in the 2022 race, and this was something also alluded to by Tusk when he reflected on the current state of the bid. 

"The decision to hold a referendum brings a certain ambiguity," the Prime Minister admitted. 

"For without the consent of the inhabitants of Kraków, without enthusiasm around the Olympic project, we cannot move forward.

"Everything is now in the hands of the people."

A final decision on who hosts the Games in 2022 is due to be made during the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 31 2015.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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