France defends men’s volleyball Olympic gold medal, beating No. 1 Poland in front of wild home fans

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PARIS (AP) — Jean Patry and his jubilant French teammates locked shoulders, formed a circle, then jumped and danced. They kept bouncing on their side of the net for several minutes while the deafening home crowd joined right along and shook the stands.

France had defended its gold medal in men’s volleyball on Saturday and South Paris Arena instantly became party central.

Nicolas Le Goff leapt high off the ground and into the happy huddle, the Paris-born middle blocker’s mouth wide open.

Players hugged, waved and smiled, thrilled for their entire home country to be part of another celebration in a sport they have only recently come to dominate.

Oh how special it was to win this one with a raucous, standing-room-only crowd offering assists every step of the way. Once the shiny medals hung around their necks, the French sang their national anthem in unison with thousands of supporters.

They never had this chance in Tokyo, where no fans were allowed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s just crazy to win in front of these fans, our family, our friends, it’s amazing, we have no words about this,”said Trévor Clévenot, France’s 30-year-old outside hitter. “It’s just incredible and we are so happy. It’s so amazing to win here in Paris in front of our fans.”

The dejected Poland team watched its victorious opponent share this magical moment with the masses. That included longtime libero Pawel Zatorski, who played through a painful left shoulder injury sustained in a five-set semifinal thriller against the United States.

Fans waving The Tricolore roared and caused the seats to quake with every remarkable rally, leaping block, powerful spike and service ace as their team handled world No. 1 Poland in straight sets.

The second-ranked French won 25-19, 25-20, 25-23 to make it two in a row on top of the Olympic podium.

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For sure, they’re on top of the world, too. And all of France is right there with them.

This team had never even won an Olympic medal before the Tokyo Games. Now that’s two golds in three years. Only the Americans and the Soviet Union repeated previously, with the U.S. the last to do it at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, then ’88 in Seoul.

France was led by Patry’s hard hitting and match-high 17 points along with the squad’s sensational service game that led to eight aces — four in the second set — and just plain hustle plays.

Quentin Jouffroy sparked France in the third when he served the first of his three late aces, putting the team ahead 19-18, then again for leads of 21-18 and 23-18. Coach Andrea Giani had instructed him to serve short and the strategy worked masterfully.

“For me this is my first, but for the others I’m really happy for them because they didn’t have time to celebrate with the public,” Jouffroy said of the Tokyo gold. “They had it when they came back, but it’s not the same. So now it’s like they won two times in the same place.”

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Earvin N’Gapeth routinely hit the floor to save balls and keep rallies alive, and he somehow pulled off a blind, over-the-head scoring point with his face looking away from the net.

Patry converted eight of his initial nine chances while Barthélémy Chinenyeze began 6 for 6 in the attack and he and N’Gapeth finished with eight points apiece.

Poland reached the Olympic final for the first time in 48 years since capturing gold at the 1976 Montreal Games. But France came out pounding and never relinquished.

The French ran to a 16-11 lead in the first set fueled by the energized crowd and kept pushing. They had learned a good lesson about falling behind and took no chances with gold on the line: France was forced to rally from a two-set deficit in the quarterfinals Monday against Germany to keep alive its shot at a repeat championship.

Poland coach Nikola Grbić so wanted a gold for his veteran team — with 34-year-old Zatorski, 36-year-old Grzegorz Lomacz and soon-to-be-36 Bartosz Kurek likely playing their final Olympics.

There was no way Zatorski, Poland’s veteran libero, was going to miss this opportunity under the Olympic lights despite going down for several minutes when he injured the shoulder in a collision with a teammate during Wednesday’s come-from-behind, five-set victory against the Americans.

After the semifinal match, Zatorski couldn’t feel a couple of fingers on his left hand.

“I think we can be proud of ourselves how we played all tournament, all Olympics,” Poland outside hitter Tomasz Fornal said. “We had a lot of problems and injuries so I think we can be happy about this silver.”

The American men bounced back from the defeat to Poland and swept Italy for a bronze medal on Friday, while the U.S. women will face Italy on Sunday for a chance to defend their Tokyo title.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games