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 has 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 brings together photographs, archival documents, memorabilia and rare exhibits. They let visitors feel the atmosphere of the Montreal Games and recall the stories of the athletes who gave Poles reason to be proud. The museum presents the volleyball team and figures such as Irena Szewinska, Jacek Wszola, Tadeusz Slusarski, Janusz Pyciak-Peciak, Jerzy Rybicki and Kazimierz Lipien, whose victories meant the Polish anthem was played seven times in Montreal.

The exhibition has been on view since 31 July 2026 at the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw, alongside the permanent display on the second floor.

What to expect

This is a temporary exhibition without a gallery of its own: the museum shows Montreal ’76 within the permanent exhibition space on the second floor of the Olympic Centre, so you see it as part of an ordinary museum visit. It brings together photographs, archival documents and memorabilia, with the spotlight on the gold-medal volleyball team and Poland’s individual Olympic champions of 1976: sprinter Irena Szewińska, high jumper Jacek Wszoła, pole vaulter Tadeusz Ślusarski, modern pentathlete Janusz Pyciak-Peciak, boxer Jerzy Rybicki and wrestler Kazimierz Lipień.

The museum gives no object count or curator names and has published no press material on the show, so its size is not known in advance. Plan your visit around the whole permanent exhibition, “The History of Polish Sport and Olympic Movement”: about 1,000 m² and more than 3,000 exhibits, including original Olympic medals. The Montreal display fits in naturally, since the permanent route ends with today’s Polish champions.

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, a result it has never matched since. The exhibition title follows the medal calendar. The first Polish medal, a silver, came on 18 July in the cycling team time trial; 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 after a five-set final.

Tickets and time

• Museum admission: 35 PLN regular, 25 PLN reduced, 60 PLN family (up to five people, at least one adult, children up to the end of primary school). The price list has no separate ticket for temporary exhibitions.
• Free on Saturdays - the price list makes no exception for temporary shows, so Saturday is the cheapest day to come.
• Free admission also for children under 7, and for Olympians and members of the Polish Olympians’ Club.
• Discounts: 50% off a regular ticket if you show a Koleje Mazowieckie (Masovian Railways) regional train ticket at the desk, until the end of 2026; 1 PLN for disabled visitors resident in the Masovia region and their carers.
• Hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 9:00-17:00, Wednesday 9:00-20:00, Saturday-Sunday 10:00-17:00, closed Mondays. Last entry 16:30, on Wednesdays 19:30. Also closed on major Polish holidays, including 1 and 11 November and three days at Christmas.
• Groups: book through the museum’s reservations desk (+48 22 56 03 786); a group ticket for more than five people is 20 PLN per person, and a guided tour costs 250 PLN per group, also available in English.
• Getting there: the Olympic Centre, ul. Wybrzeże Gdyńskie 4, in the Żoliborz district by the Vistula, north of the city centre. Buses 114 and 185 stop at Centrum Olimpijskie (request stop, signal the driver); from Plac Wilsona metro station on the M1 line it is about 1,200 m on foot.
• Leave behind large bags, backpacks, food and drinks: none are allowed in the exhibitions. The building has a ramp, lifts and accessible toilets.
• English on site: the museum does not say whether this show has English labels, and its English-language website does not list the exhibition at all. If you do not read Polish, expect to rely on the photographs and objects, or book an English-language group tour.

Who it is for: anyone who remembers the summer of 1976, volleyball and athletics fans, and families, since the museum sets no minimum age. If you want a large stand-alone exhibition, remember this is a temporary exhibition shown within the permanent exhibition space; a trip just for Montreal makes sense only if you plan to see the whole museum.

See also

• Museum of Sport and Tourism permanent exhibition - the second-floor route, with original Olympic medals and the kayak Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) paddled on the Masurian lakes; the Montreal show is displayed within this space.
• “A History Written with Chess Pieces” - another of the museum’s current shows, on a century of the Polish Chess Federation, easy to combine in one visit.

Tickets and opening hours are on the museum’s English-language website.

Museum profile: Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw.