Yes, although he hasn't been competing in rallying on a regular basis for some 5 years, Holek is still very popular in Poland. But you should have seen what was going on here in his golden days - at the end of the nineties. He was the biggest star here, not only a sportsman... Even today it didn't change much. Last year they made a nation-wide poll asking people about the most popular sportsmen in Poland. If I remember correctly the results were 1) Adam Malysz (ski jumper), 2) Robert Kubica (F1 driver), 3) Krzysztof Holowczyc
Here is what Holowczyc said about his resignation of carrying the olympic torch:
After thinking about it for a long time, asking of opinions of many people and institutions, I decided to resign from taking part in the Olympic Torch relay. It is a way of my personal protest against mixing politics with sports.
More about it (in Polish) here:
http://www.holowczyc.eu
P.S. Freedom for Tibet!