Match of the year and even more! Polish volleyball players made history with this triumph

It was August 7, 2024. At 4:00 p.m., for the first time in 44 years, the Polish volleyball team played in the semi-finals of the Olympic tournament. Perhaps few people remember, but after their success at the Olympic Games in Montreal, which ended with gold in 1976, four years later the Poles were again in the top four. However, the team led by coach Aleksander Skiba lost 0:3 to Bulgaria, then 1:3 to Romania in the match for 3rd place and finished the games in Moscow in fourth place.

Poland – USA, or the volleyball thriller of all time at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris

In 1980, they were absent from the Olympics, but American volleyball had a solid delegation in the French capital. After breaking the spell of the “quarterfinal curse”, i.e. Poland winning at this Olympic stage after another five(!) defeats in a row, it was the USA team that stood in the way of coach Nikola Grbic’s team.

Two decades without a quarterfinal win and a huge stone that has fallen from the hearts of probably everyone who is not indifferent to the fate of Polish volleyball. At the head of the team that went to Paris to break the spell of everything evil, turning it into gold. It worked out almost one hundred percent, even though the organizers had prepared the most difficult Olympic tournament in years. There were twice as many people willing to take the podium than its capacity.

The quarterfinal battle with Slovenia (3:1) took Mateusz Bieniek at the very finish line. The starting center of the national team suffered an injury, which eliminated any possibility of playing in the semi-finals. Next to the certain Jakub Kochanowski, who was selected to the tournament team at the end, Norbert Huber played. Tomasz Fornal was also ready, fighting against time in the group stage, after an injury suffered at the start of the Olympic competition. It turned out that the national team’s medical staff, headed by physiotherapists Tomasz Pieczko and Mateusz Kowalik, worked miracles. Fornal was selected to play for the last group match. But even miracles require some luck. Unfortunately, Bieniek was out for a long time, far beyond the tournament in Paris…

The Poles started the semi-final by winning the set 25:23. Grbic sent into the fight a squad that could be bet blindly. Fornal and Wilfredo Leon responsible for the reception. On the attack, captain Bartosz Kurek. The mentioned center of the net, the duo of Kochanowski and Huber. The kicker is Marcin Janusz, and the libero is Paweł Zatorski.

In the first set it was even 24:20, but the Americans were able to get closer to 24:23. Huber finished the opening set from the middle after 30 minutes of play.

In the second part, the roles were reversed, because it was the Poles who had to chase. It was already 14:18, 18:21 or 20:22, but in the end it became 22:22. The Americans were better in the advantage game, closing the set with a 27-25 victory. However, the worst for Poles was yet to come that day…

Injuries of Zatorski and Janusz. Fornal’s speech and Łomacz’s key entry

The third set, the scoreboard was 9:12 to Poland’s disadvantage. Longer, jerky action, a lot of inaccuracies and finally point number 13 for the USA. During a long exchange, Zatorski bumps into Janusz. It seemed like a harmless situation. However, the experienced libero falls on the pitch and there is a longer break in the game, while medical assistance people appear. Looking at Zatorski’s movements, it is already clear that it is much more serious than it may have originally seemed. After a few minutes it is already 9:16, Kurek is not on the pitch (Bartłomiej Bołądź came on) and Leon (replacement by Kamil Semeniuk). The set ends at 14:25, completely colorless from a Polish perspective.

As if that wasn’t enough, Bieniek and the injured but still playing Zatorski were joined by Janusz in the fourth game. With the score at 2-3, the playmaker, whom Grbic has been consistently relying on since the beginning of his work with the Polish national team, ends his participation in the semi-finals. It becomes clear that Grzegorz Łomacz is the only option left. Written off by most fans and questioned throughout the entire Olympic cycle, it shows that he has been waiting for such a moment his entire volleyball life. Łomacz knows exactly what he wants to do, how to help the team get going. And this one starts for good!

Even though the result is 4:8, 9:12 or 14:16, it is clear that the Poles believe until the end.

And as Kurek admits to the cameras after the match, at some point the team simply decides that it will not lose this match. Difficult to explain logically, but that’s how it was. The Americans, however, just like at the 2018 World Championships, again in the semi-finals, lose their advantage 2:1 in sets and with the shaky Poles on the other side of the net. Let us also add that among the unfortunate Olympic quarterfinals, there was also the one in the Poland-USA configuration. In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro it ended with a sad 0:3. Back then, there were, for example, Kurek, Łomacz and Zatorski on the pitch. In addition, Michał Kubiak, who was also in Paris with Grbic’s team, although only as a fan.

Each subsequent American attack was extremely important at a critical moment, adding to the newly built self-confidence. One of the most important actions is the exchange for 9:11, where, among others, Fornal picks up the ball on the end line, and finally Leon successfully finishes the whole thing. Speaking of self-confidence, Fornal’s “flowery” speech during the time at 18:20 could not be missing.

– Come on, let’s f*** with them, f***! – the host made a now legendary appeal to his colleagues.

The quoted Fornal finished set number 4, and the Poles escaped from the “pit, volleyball hell” – as Tomasz Swędrowski, the voice of Polish volleyball commenting on the match, rightly put it. The point attack at 25:23 and Fornal’s look at the American side only confirmed the fans of Grbic’s team that on this day and at this particular moment, the USA once again has someone to fear.

Leon is the leader, Kochanowski is brilliant, and Grbic is like Wagner!

The tie-breaker started by releasing Huber (1:1), successfully. After a while, the center added a service ace (2:1). Kochanowski? Effective block (3:1) and attack (4:2). Huber again made an effective attack (7:5), “Kochan” also (12:10), adding another impressive cap (13:10).

But not only about the central players, the Poles had effective receivers. Fornal and Leon took the matter into their own hands. The most effective player on the pitch that day, the second one mentioned, scored 26 points, the most important of which was at 15:13. Although the hand could have trembled, because the Poles were already 14:11 and the opponent had approached a dangerous distance. It is worth adding that Leon scored 9 points in the fourth, key set. Once again showing how valuable a volleyball player he is to the Polish national team.

The Poles advanced to the final, and the match will end after exactly two hours and eleven minutes. Volleyball knows longer thrillers, but it is probably difficult to find one in which, in such unusual circumstances, including random ones (i.e. injuries), a team that is in deep defense wrests the win from the hands of top-class rivals.

Tears of Poles, a unique shot of Kurek hugging Łomacz, are images that have become a permanent part of the history of Polish Olympism. Grbic, like Hubert Jerzy Wagner, advanced to the Olympic finals. However, in this match the French turned out to be out of reach (0:3). The Tricolor team defended their title from the Games in Tokyo (2021), but that heroic semi-final is still an event that allowed Poles to feel proud of the result in team sports at the Olympics. And as you know, it’s not such a common feeling.

Over the course of these two decades of the “Olympic curse”, volleyball players have earned this success. And as they emphasized after the final in Paris, the goal is still gold at the Olympics. Who knows, maybe in Los Angeles (IO 2028) we will hear “Mazurka Dąbrowskiego”?