The Polish team will battle for gold on Saturday against France, who won the other semi-final against Italy later on Wednesday.
Poland beat the U.S. by three sets to two (25:23, 25:27, 14:25, 25:23, 15:13) in a victory that came a day after the Polish women’s team were beaten in their quarter-final, also against the U.S.
“We’ve been waiting for this almost half a century!” Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the X platform after the match.
The U.S. embassy in Warsaw also took to X to congratulate the winners.
“A bit painful but hats off to Poland,” the embassy wrote. “What a match! Rematch in Los Angeles in 2028.”
A nail-biting match
The match could easily have gone the other way, with the U.S. 2-1 ahead and looking likely to play their first final since 2008.
Poland entered the Paris Olympics as the top-ranked men’s team in the world but hoped to break an Olympic jinx that had dogged them for years, having lost in five consecutive Olympic quarter-finals. They are now guaranteed either gold or silver, adding to the country’s tally of just three medals so far (one gold, one silver and one bronze).
After trailing 2-1, Poland fought back in the fourth set despite being behind to force a fifth deciding set. Again finding themselves 14–10 down against the United States, one of the world’s top players, Cuban-born Polish superstar Wilfredo León, clinched the game with a ferocious strike that gave Poland its greatest win in 48 years.
Poland has only ever won one Olympic medal for men’s volleyball, taking gold way back in 1976.
