From Cyclists to Footballers - the Magic of Montreal ’76

The year 2026 marks fifty years since the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal, remembered as one of the finest chapters in the history of Polish sport and the Olympic movement. Polish athletes won 26 medals there - 7 gold, 6 silver and 13 bronze - taking sixth place in the medal table, the best result in the country’s history. To mark the anniversary, the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw prepared an exhibition recalling those events of half a century ago, with particular attention to the achievements of the Polish team and the heroes of those days.

The display brought together photographs, archival documents, memorabilia and rare exhibits. They let visitors feel the atmosphere of the Montreal Games and recalled the stories of the athletes who gave Poles reason to be proud. The museum presented the volleyball team and figures such as Irena Szewińska, Jacek Wszoła, Tadeusz Ślusarski, Janusz Pyciak-Peciak, Jerzy Rybicki and Kazimierz Lipień, whose victories meant the Polish anthem was played seven times in Montreal.

The exhibition was on view from 31 July 2026 at the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw, within the permanent exhibition space on the second floor. The museum gave no closing date. Between 13 and 15 October 2026 it moved the show from its list of temporary exhibitions to its 2026 exhibition archive. The closing date of 14 October 2026 in the page header was adopted by this site; it is not a museum date.

What to expect

The museum showed Montreal ’76 within the permanent exhibition space on the second floor. It brought together photographs, archival documents and memorabilia, with the spotlight on, among others, the gold-medal volleyball team and the Olympic champions Irena Szewińska, Jacek Wszoła, Tadeusz Ślusarski, Janusz Pyciak-Peciak, Jerzy Rybicki and Kazimierz Lipień.

The museum gave no object count or curator names and published no press material on the show, so it is not known how large this part of the display was.

Context

The 1976 Summer Olympics ran in Montreal from 17 July to 1 August. Poland sent 207 athletes in 18 sports and finished sixth in the medal table, the highest place in its history. The exhibition title fits the medal calendar well: the first Polish medal, a silver, came as early as 18 July in the cycling team time trial (Ryszard Szurkowski, Stanisław Szozda, Tadeusz Mytnik, Mieczysław Nowicki), and one of the last, also silver, went to the footballers in the final on 31 July. In between, Irena Szewińska won the 400 metres in a world record of 49.29 seconds, and the volleyball team under coach Hubert Wagner took gold, winning the final 3:2.

Updates

• 2026-10-17 - the exhibition has closed. Between 13 and 15 October 2026 the museum moved it from its list of temporary exhibitions to its 2026 exhibition archive; the only show left on the temporary list is “Rowerem po drogach i bezdrożach Królestwa Polskiego” (By Bicycle on the Roads and Byways of the Kingdom of Poland). The museum gave no closing day: the show’s page in the archive still says only that it can be seen from 31 July 2026 (permanent exhibition, second floor). 14 October 2026 is therefore our own adopted date, not a museum date (sources: temporary exhibitions list, 2026 archive, the show’s page in the archive, all in Polish).

See also

• Museum of Sport and Tourism permanent exhibition - the second-floor route, with original Olympic medals and Karol Wojtyła’s kayak; the Montreal show was displayed within this space.

After the show

The current temporary exhibition at the Museum of Sport and Tourism:

• By Bicycle on the Roads and Byways of the Kingdom of Poland - from 14 October 2026, the museum gives no end date. It marks the 140th anniversary of the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society: the museum shows 19th-century saddles of the society’s members, carbide bicycle lamps, a plaque from the society’s building on Dynasy and the equipment of a military courier from the time of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.

The museum showed the Montreal objects within the space of its permanent exhibition, “The History of Polish Sport and Olympic Movement”, on the second floor. According to the museum, it traces the history of sport from ancient Greece through the birth of the modern Olympic Games to the present day: more than 3,000 exhibits and almost 600 photographs on about 1,000 m², including original Olympic medals and Karol Wojtyła’s kayak. Among the athletes it profiles are Irena Szewińska and Ryszard Szurkowski, both medallists in Montreal (description of the exhibition, in Polish).

Another current show in Warsaw on a related theme:

• No Hands. How the Bicycle Changes Warsaw - at the Wola Museum until 2 July 2027; more than a century and a half of the bicycle in Warsaw, shown as a means of transport, a technology and a social phenomenon, with cycling presented as both a historical and a contemporary phenomenon.

Museum profile: Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw.