Yugoslavia Defeats the Big 3 for Gold

Italy had a point to prove on Sunday afternoon in the bronze medal play-off against Argentina, and Argentina finally found that they had been overperforming to reach the top four.

In a great display of precision volleyball, the Italians basically wiped Argentina off the court to take the Olympic bronze medal. NBC commentators have suggested that the Italian players haven't performed to their best ability at recent Olympics because of the intensity of their club league leaves them run down come the Olympics. But, if they'd played as confidently as they did against Argentina, then the gold medal should have been theirs already. The Italian block shut down Maly early, followed by Milinkovic and Conte leaving the Argentinians with few scoring options.

In the gold medal match, it was always going to be interesting to see whether the Russian block would be able to stop the varied Yugoslavian attack...it couldn't. Yugoslavia's setter, Nikola Grbic, again was brilliant at splitting the Russian block and giving his hitters every chance at a kill. With Yugoslavia 2-0 up, the men's finals looked set to finish without great fanfare just as the women's had the day before, but one point brought the crowd to life. Midway through a long rally, Russia pounded the ball onto the arms of the Yugoslave backcourt and the ball flew high off to the outside of the advertising bollards. Jumping the advertising, the ball was dug in mid air by Vladimir Grbic back into court before being blocked away for a winner by the same player as he raced back. Easily one of the most exciting points of the tournament.

Yugoslavian men receiving their gold medals on the final day of competition.

So, Yugoslavia were deserved gold medalists, defeating Italy, Russia and The Netherlands during the finals.