Italy and France were the protaginist of the Volleyball matches in the Olympics. Italian women’s won the title at the South Paris Arena, beating the USA 3-0. The top-ranked team claimed its first Olympic medal in the sport with a dominant display of technical skill against the six-time Olympic medallists USA. In the case of men's team, the Gold stayed at home with the victory of 'Les Bleus', the French Team.

Italy dominates the USA in women's

It was an intense match this last one. The Italians made their move early, going up 5-1 in the first set to force a timeout by Team USA. USA worked their way up after the timeout but still trailed, letting the Italians take the first set 25-18 with Paola Egonu terminating.

Four-time Olympian Jordan Larson, who came out of retirement to play in Paris, picked up her first kill in the second set to tie the Americans. It didn’t seem enough to get them the lead and called another timeout, after which Italy unsuccessfully challenged a touch on the block, a huge sigh of relief for the USA but they lost the second match anyway.

The third set didn’t go well for the Americans either, unable to put up a decent block against Italy’s offence. Myriam Sylla and Alessia Orro showed top performances to extend Italy’s lead. An ace from Ekaterina Antropova further buried the Americans’ hopes at the gold.

Brazil won the bronze, winning against Türkiye on Saturday 3-1. Gabriela Guimaraes led Brazil with a game-high 28 points, while Thaisa de Menezes, a twice-Olympic champion who also came out of retirement last year, had 17 with seven blocks.

"Making her a three-time Olympic champion was a big motivation for us," Brazil's Ana Da Silva said. "Before this match, I told her that since she didn't have a bronze medal, that was the one we were going to get her."

Men's Gold was for the Host

France became the first men's volleyball team to win back-to-back Olympic golds since the United States (in 1984 and 1988) with a 3-0 victory over Poland on Saturday 10 August at Paris 2024.

With a loud, tri-colour-waving crowd on their side, the hosts never looked like losing. The final score was 25-19, 25-20, 25-23, with Quentin Jouffroy’s service game getting them off to a great start. Arun of great serves near the end of the match from Poland’s Wilfredo Leon momentarily thwarted France, but a timeout calmed the team down before they went on to clinch gold.

"If [the French fans] weren't here, we wouldn't have reached the semifinals. I always say that Tokyo was huge, and somebody asked me how it could be better. I said 'winning at home'. That is the only thing that could be better," said France's Antoine Brizard.

Injuries took their toll on Poland, with libero Pawel Zatorski sustaining arm damage that caused a stoppage in the match for a few minutes. He kept playing but was affected by the pain as he tried to stretch out to hit the ball. The United States clinched the bronze medal with a 3-0 win over Italy on Friday 9 August.