USA dominate Italy to claim Paris 2024 bronze

Ending the men's volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Games with the bronze medals around their necks was the goal for both the United States and Italy, but the Americans were the ones to succeed in the task after they won the exciting battle for the third place held on Friday at the South Paris Arena 1.

With both teams looking reinvigorated after dealing with tough semifinal losses on Wednesday, the United States played better in the decisive moments of each set to triumph 3-0 (25-23, 30-28, 26-24) and claim the last spot available on the podium in Paris.

The victory placed the Americans back among the top three teams at the Olympics after they couldn't make it past pool play in Tokyo three years ago. It was their third bronze and the sixth overall medal won by the country in men's volleyball - they also have golds in Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Beijing 2008 and bronzes from Barcelona 1992 and Rio 2016.

Seven members of the Paris squad got to celebrate their second Olympic medals as they were also with the team in Brazil eight years ago - setter Micah Christenson, opposite Matt Anderson, outside hitters Aaron Russell and Thomas Jaeschke, middle blockers David Smith and Max Holt and libero Erik Shoji.

"Coming here, we knew how difficult winning a medal was going to be," Christenson said. "We're just so grateful now. It wasn't the medal we were hoping for, but bronze is something we're so proud of and will have forever. After Tokyo, there was a period of grief, but I don't think we ever lost any confidence on what we could do. We learned from that experience and understood that when the next opportunity came, we were going to improve on that situation and I think we did that by leaps and bounds in this tournament. We've played some incredible volleyball here in Paris and it feels amazing to be on the podium."

The Paris Games also marked the end of a cycle for the Americans, who will see some core players step away from the national team after several years and multiple Olympic appearances - 39-year-old Smith, 37-year-olds Anderson and Holt, 36-year-old Garrett Muagututia and 34-year-old Shoji are the most likely candidates to end their international careers.

"This group of men and the journey we've shared together has been so meaningful and so successful," head coach John Speraw commented. "For them to finish this way, it just feels right to me, they deserved that. They had an exceptional Olympic Games, especially in context with their past experience, which just added pressure and they handled it with total poise. It says a lot about their experience, leadership and maturity. It's not just what they did but how they did it. For them to feel the success together on the court one last time, it's just a big moment for all of us."

To Italy, the fourth-place finish keeps the reigning world champions out of the podium in two consecutive editions of the Games for the first time since Barcelona 1992 - the Italians won five of their six medals in the eight editions of the event held since then.

The bronze medal match victory also lifted the Americans to second place in the FIVB World Ranking, as they gained two spots with the 12.93 points earned, which elevated their total to 365.87. Italy, on the other hand, went down from third to fifth, with 347.10.

Russell was the top American scorer in the match, producing 15 points (11 kills, three blocks, one ace) for the winners. Fellow outside hitter TJ Defalco and Holt also had strong performances, with 12 and 11 points respectively.

"Winning this medal means everything, that was our goal," libero Erik Shoji commented. "We obviously wanted to be on the final, but bronze is important. To be able to come back after some adversity and show this character is huge. I tried to lift the team up after losing the semifinals, that's who I am and what I do every day on the court, but it was hard. I truly wasn't feeling amazing until that first point. But we did it and we'll take it."

With 17 points each, opposite Yuri Romanò and outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto were the top scorers in the Paris 2024 bronze medal match and led Italy on the court.

"I thought we played really well today," Romanò said. "The USA are a great team and we knew we couldn't let them build a big lead and we managed to stay close in each set, but unfortunately they were better than us in the final points. Being fourth is the worst feeling in sports. We were motivated to win bronze because we knew it was important. We did a good job of putting that semifinal loss behind us and focusing on today, but unfortunately it wasn't enough to win."

More focused, the Americans benefited from 25 Italian errors to produce their victory - they gave up just 18 points to their opponents. The USA also outscored the Italians in blocks (nine to five), while the Europeans had the edge in kills (47 to 45) and aces (five to two).

Men’s and women’s medal matches on Saturday

On Saturday, two matches will be held at the South Paris Arena 1, with both men and women fighting for medals in the Paris 2024 Games. The men will play first, with hosts France and Poland clashing for gold at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT).

Paris 2024 – Match Schedule and Results

Later, at 17:15 local time (15:15 local time), the bronze medal match of the women’s tournament will start, with Brazil and Türkiye fighting for the last spot on the podium. Italy and the United States will play for gold on Sunday, at 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT).

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