Tomasz Fornal, center left, and Bartlomiej Boladz (30), of Poland, celebrate after winning their men’s volleyball semifinal match against Team USA at the Paris Olympics 2024, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
PARIS — Pawel Zatorski couldn’t feel a couple of fingers on his left hand.
They were still numb more than an hour after the veteran libero went down for several minutes in the middle of third set of Poland’s remarkable comeback against the Americans.
He got up and kept going, his shoulder throbbing — and now Zatorski and his teammates will play for an Olympic gold medal in men’s volleyball.
“It’s Olympic semifinal,” coach Nikola Grbić said. “I know how much him, (Bartosz) Kurek, (Grzegorz) Lomacz, these guys, it’s the last opportunity. They will play with a broken arm.”
READ: Paris Olympics volleyball semifinals set: Italy, France, USA, Poland
With Zatorski grimacing in pain and a few other key players already sidelined, Poland rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the United States in the deciding fifth set of the Paris Olympics’ semifinals on Wednesday.
Grbić scrambled to see who might take Zatorski’s place, but it wasn’t necessary.
“At one point I told the guys when we were struggling and they were playing great volleyball, it was so difficult to play against them, and in one moment we were down and I told the guys, ‘Nobody can win this alone,’” Grbić said, “’We are a team. … We have to believe in the end we might come back and win.’”
Poland rallied from 20-18 down in the fourth and needed two set points to force it to a deciding fifth set, sending the largely pro-Poland crowd at South Paris Arena into a frenzy, with chants of “Polska!” and horns blaring throughout the stadium.
Pawel Zatorski, of Poland, is tended to by medical personnel during a semifinal men’s volleyball match against Team USA at the Paris Olympics 2024, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Led by Cuba native outside hitter Wilfredo León in the attack, Poland jumped out to an early lead in the first-to-15 fifth and left the Americans trying to play catch up the rest of the way.
A service ace by Max Holt pulled Team USA within 11-10. León’s spike out of bounds made it 14-13 before his successful point moments later sent the team down to the floor in celebration of the comeback.
León amassed a match-high 26 points to lead the 25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 victory.
READ: Team USA women’s volleyball advances to Olympics semifinal
Four-time American Olympians Matt Anderson and David Smith were oh-so-close to finally playing for a gold medal. Team USA team hasn’t been to the Olympic championship since winning it all at the 2008 Beijing Games.
“Tough one to take,” Anderson said. “They served well, they hit the ball high and hard. In the sets two, three and the beginning of the fourth we were bringing balls down and we got good touches when they were a little bit easier balls. We just didn’t necessarily take care of that late in the fourth.”
Despite this defeat, getting to the medal round is redemption for a Team USA men’s team that failed to advance out of group stage play in Tokyo three years ago — and it’s a major reason several of the older players on the team returned for one last Olympic hurrah.
The veteran Team USA squad will play for bronze against Italy, while Poland plays for the title Saturday against France.
For a U.S. men’s volleyball team that was among the youngest at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where they brought home bronze, the Americans are now Olympic veterans — five of them now fathers.
Taylor Averill (19), Matthew Anderson (1) and Aaron Russell (2), of the United States, celebrate during a semifinal men’s volleyball match against Poland at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Anderson, Smith, Micah Christenson, three-time Olympic libero Erik Shoji and others returned for another run in Paris after the heartbreak of missing the medal rounds in Tokyo.
The 37-year-old Anderson is a four-time Olympian but second-oldest behind Smith, who is 39. Christenson, Shoji, Holt and Thomas Jaeschke are at their third Olympics.
The Americans won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, then finished fifth in London four years later before the bronze in Rio. But the disappointment of how it ended in Tokyo three years ago served as serious fuel.
Zatorski went down in the middle of the third set with the Americans leading 13-9, and Team USA grabbed momentum. Zatorski got up on his own after several minutes and could be seen stretching out his left shoulder with medical personnel checking on him, then grabbed at his shoulder moments later after a dig.
The 34-year-old Zatorski knew he had to stay in it, his team was counting on him. Poland has been waiting for this moment on the world stage after a fifth-place showing in Tokyo.
“We’ve faced many troubles, this game and a lot of games before with Nikola as a coach,” Zatorski said. “He was preparing us every single day to face every trouble. That’s the kind of thing we are surviving a lot of times and many difficult games, and we did it just one more time.”