The water polo tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 10 August 1984, at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, California. The tournament featured 12 teams, playing two rounds of round-robin play: preliminaries and finals.
Water polo was one of the four aquatic sports held at the 1984 Games, along with swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming, which was held for the first time.
12 teams played in the 1984 Olympic tournament:
The top 8 teams qualified for the 1985 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup in Duisburg, West Germany.
The tournament was set up into 2 levels of round-robin play: preliminary play in 3 groups; and final play in 2 groups. The top 2 teams from each preliminary group (shaded ones) advanced to Group D and played for the top-6 places; the bottom 2 teams from each preliminary group played in Group E to determine places 7-12.
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