Poles’ tears after their title dreams were taken away. The French turned out to be a nightmare
France – Poland. This is what the final set of the last Olympic volleyball tournament looked like. Ultimately, the hosts came out on top and won in three sets.
Polish national team to jump over the so-called the curse of the quarter-finals, she had been waiting for 20 years. The bad thing started in 2004 during the Olympic tournament in Athens. Subsequent attempts in: Beijing (2008), London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2020/21) ended with the same scenario. The Poles lost at the quarterfinal stage, unable to reach the top four of the Olympic competition.
However, the breakthrough came in Paris (2024), where not only Poland won the quarterfinal against Slovenia, but also entered the final after a brilliant semifinal against the USA, won in downright… illogical circumstances.
France – Poland in the game for gold. Poles’ tears after losing the final
However, the match against the Americans deserves a separate text, or maybe even something longer, considering the number of unexpected twists. The facts are, however, that the Poles managed to pull off the success, winning 3:2 and reaching the grand Olympic final.
The problem, however, was that Poland entered the gold medal match… decimated by problems. Mateusz Bieniek suffered an injury during the tournament, and on the basis of the so-called The medical transfer was replaced by Bartłomiej Bołądź. In the semi-final against the USA, Paweł Zatorski was also injured. In the case of the libero, unfortunately, coach Nikola Grbic had no room to maneuver, so ultimately “Zati” played in the gold medal match. Although it is difficult to say that he was one hundred percent ready, or rather properly cared for by the medical staff to minimize the pain.
The situation with quarterback Marcin Janusz was similar. In this case, there were also problems in the semi-finals, strong painkillers were used, but the volleyball player played in the Olympic final. However, in the direct battle for gold, the Poles were worse than the hosts. France took gold for the second time in a row.
ME 2026: The Polish national team defends the title. Where and when to watch the Polish final?
The Polish national volleyball team has won gold medals in the European Championships twice in its history. Poles won in 2009 and 2023. Historically, Poland won its first title in Turkey, and Piotr Gruszka was honored with the MVP award.
The last tournament, the 33rd edition in the history of the Men’s Volleyball Championship, was held in four countries: North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Israel and Italy. Ultimately, in the final battle in Rome, the Poles defeated the Italians 3-0. The MVP award went to Wilfredo Leon.
Looking at the entire history of the Men’s Volleyball Championships, Poland won a total of 11 medals. This is the third best result in terms of the number of Old Continent championship medals won by Polish representatives. There are two gold medals (2009, 2023), and five silver medals in a row (1975, 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983). What is even more interesting, at that time only the USSR volleyball players won the championship titles. In the years 1967-91, the Soviet Union national team won 10 titles out of 11 editions of the European Championship.
Poland won four bronze medals at the European Championships, in the editions of 1967 (the first medal for volleyball players in the history of the European Championships) and more recently – 2011, 2019 and 2021.
The final of the European Championship 2026 Poland – France on Saturday (i.e. September 26), starting at 9:00 p.m.
Matches of the European Men’s Volleyball Championship 2026 are shown on Polsat open channels (meetings of the Polish national team) and Polsat Sport. However, you can use the Polsat Box Go platform online.
