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Water polo at the Summer Olympics

Water polo has been part of the Summer Olympics program since the second games, in 1900. A women's water polo tournament was introduced for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Hungary has been the most successful country in men's tournament, while the United States is the only team to win multiple times at the women's tournament since its introduction. Italy was the first to win both the men's and women's water polo tournaments.

History

The history of water polo as a team sport began in mid-19th century England and Scotland, where water sports were a feature of county fairs and festivals. Water polo has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896. Women's water polo made its debut in the Summer Olympics in 2000.

Beginnings

Men's water polo was among the first team sports introduced at the modern Olympic Games in 1900. Seven European teams from four countries, including four from the host nation France, took part in the competition. The British team was the inaugural champion.

At the 1904 Summer Olympics, a water polo tournament was contested, three club teams of seven players each entered. A German team tried to enter, but its entry was refused because the players did not play for the same club. The event took place in a pond in Forest Park, the location of both the Olympics and the World's Fair. Previously, the International Olympic Committee and International Swimming Federation (FINA) considered the water polo event at the 1904 Olympics as a demonstration sport. However, in July 2021, after accepting the recommendation of Olympic historian Bill Mallon, the IOC recognized water polo along with several others as an official sport of the 1904 Olympic program. Water polo was not played at the 1906 Olympics.

From 1908 to 1920, the Great Britain men's national water polo team won three consecutive gold medals at the Olympics, becoming the first water polo team to have an Olympic winning streak (winning three or more Olympic titles in a row).

Hungarian dominance

Hungary men's national water polo team has participated in 22 of 27 Olympic tournaments, with fifteen Olympic medals (nine gold, three silver and three bronze). From 1928 to 1980, the Hungarians won twelve consecutive medals in water polo. Twenty years later, the team won three golds in a row between 2000 and 2008, becoming the second team to have an Olympic winning streak in water polo.

Blood in the Water match

The most famous water polo match in Olympic history often referred to as the Blood in the Water match, was a 1956 Summer Olympics semi-final match between Hungary and the Soviet Union, played in Melbourne on 6 December 1956. As the athletes left for the games, the Hungarian revolution began, and the Soviet army crushed the uprising. The match was bloody and violent. The Hungarians defeated the Soviets 4–0 before the game was called off in the final minute to prevent angry Hungarians in the crowd reacting to Soviet player Valentin Prokopov punching Hungarian player Ervin Zádor. Pictures of Zádor's injuries were published around the world, leading to the "Blood in the Water" moniker.

The Hungarians went on to win the Olympic gold medal by defeating Yugoslavia 2–1 in the final.

Addition of women's program

Women's water polo became an Olympic sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Six nations competed in the women's tournament with home team Australia winning the gold medal over the United States.

From 2012 to 2020, the United States women's team won three consecutive gold medals at the Summer Olympics, becoming the first women's water polo team to have an Olympic winning streak.

Geography

Water polo is now popular in many countries around the world, notably in Europe (particularly in Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Spain), Australia, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, 51 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) from six continents have sent their water polo teams to the Olympic Games. Men's water polo teams of European NOCs won all 27 official tournaments, while women's teams from Europe, North America and Oceania won all six gold medals. Water polo teams from Africa, Asia and South America have not won an Olympic medal yet.

Venues

For the Summer Olympics, there are 34 venues that have been or will be used for water polo.

The Seine in Paris hosted the first water polo competitions at the 1900 Olympics. The Forest Park in St. Louis hosted the water polo events for the 1904 Summer Olympics.

The first water polo venue not located on a river or a lake took place at the 1908 London Olympics. It was not until the 1920 Olympics that a separate venue was created for the aquatic venues. The 1948 Games were the first Olympics in which water polo took place both indoors and in more than one venue. The first separate water polo venue that was not connected to other aquatic venues was at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The Water Polo Arena of the 2012 London Olympics was the first dedicated water polo venue to be built for an Olympics, the structure was taken down after the games.

  1. Paris 1900: Seine, Paris
  2. St. Louis 1904: Forest Park, St. Louis
  3. London 1908: White City Stadium, White City
  4. Stockholm 1912: Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, Stockholm
  5. Antwerp 1920: Stade Nautique d'Antwerp, Antwerp
  6. Paris 1924: Piscine des Tourelles, Paris
  7. Amsterdam 1928: Olympic Sports Park Swim Stadium, Amsterdam
  8. Los Angeles 1932: Swimming Stadium, Los Angeles
  9. Berlin 1936: Olympic Swimming Stadium, Berlin
  10. London 1948: Empire Pool (final), Wembley; and Finchley Lido, North Finchley
  11. Helsinki 1952: Swimming Stadium, Helsinki
  12. Melbourne 1956: Swimming/Diving Stadium, Melbourne
  13. Rome 1960: Piscina delle Rose and Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto (final), both in Rome
  14. Tokyo 1964: Tokyo Metropolitan Indoor Swimming Pool, Tokyo
  15. Mexico City 1968: Francisco Márquez Olympic Pool (final) and University City Swimming Pool, both in Mexico City
  16. Munich 1972: Dantebad and Schwimmhalle (final), both in Munich
  17. Montreal 1976: and Olympic Pool (final), both in Montreal
  18. Moscow 1980: Swimming Pool - Moscow and Swimming Pool - Olimpiysky (final), both in Moscow
  19. Los Angeles 1984: Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool, Malibu, California
  20. Seoul 1988: Jamsil Indoor Swimming Pool, Seoul
  21. Barcelona 1992: Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc and Piscines Bernat Picornell (finals), both in Barcelona
  22. Atlanta 1996: Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, Atlanta
  23. Sydney 2000: Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre, Ryde; and Sydney International Aquatic Centre, Sydney
  24. Athens 2004: Athens Olympic Aquatic Centre, Athens
  25. Beijing 2008: Ying Tung Natatorium, Beijing
  26. London 2012: Water Polo Arena, London
  27. Rio de Janeiro 2016: Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre and Olympic Aquatics Stadium (finals), Rio de Janeiro
  28. Tokyo 2020: Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Tokyo
  29. Paris 2024: Paris Aquatic Centre and Paris La Défense Arena (finals)
  30. Los Angeles 2028: Long Beach Waterfront
  31. Brisbane 2032: Sleeman Centre

Sources:

Events

Notes:
The X indicates that the tournament was held as a full Olympic medal sport.
The bullet () denotes that it was contested as an unofficial sport.

Rules

Qualification summary

Qualification

Since 2012, the qualifying process consists of five stages:

  1. The team of the host nation qualifies automatically.
  2. No more than one team qualifies as the top team in the FINA World League.
  3. No more than three teams qualify as the top teams in the World Aquatics Championships.
  4. No more than five teams qualify as the continental Olympic qualification tournament champions.
  5. No more than four teams qualify through a world qualifying tournament, in which the best teams which did not qualify directly from each continent compete for the remaining berths.

Players

Eligibility

According to the FINA General Rules, the list below shows the requirements for a player to be eligible to play in international tournaments:

  • "GR 1.1: All competitors shall be registered with their National Federation to be eligible to compete."
  • "GR 2.5: When a competitor or competition official represents his/her country in a competition, he/she shall be a citizen, whether by birth or naturalisation, of the nation he/she represents, provided that a naturalised citizen shall have lived in that country for at least one year prior to that competition. Competitors, who have more than one nationality according to the laws of the respective nations must choose one 'Sport Nationality'. This choice shall be exercised by the first representation of the competitor for one of the countries."
  • "GR 2.6: Any competitor or competition official changing his sport nationality from one national governing body to another must have resided in the territory of and been under the jurisdiction of the latter for at least twelve months prior to his first representation for the country."

Competition format

For both the men's and women's tournaments at the 2020 Olympics (which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the competition consists of a round-robin group stage followed by a knockout stage. Teams are placed into two groups, with each team playing each other team in its group once. Teams earn 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The top four teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds. The knockout rounds are a single-elimination tournament consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals, and the gold and bronze medal matches.

Matches consist of four quarters of eight minutes each. During the knockout rounds, if the score is tied after four quarters (32 minutes), penalty shootouts, which is 5 rounds, plus extra rounds if tied, are used to determine the winner.

Sources:

Game rules

Maximum number of players per team

Sources:

Anti-doping

The FINA follows the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) regulations on performance-enhancing drugs. According to the WADA, a positive in-competition test results in disqualification of the player and a suspension that varies based on the number of offences. When a player tests positive, the rest of their team is subjected to testing; another positive test can result in a disqualification of the entire team.

Men's tournament

Results summary

Sources:

Confederation statistics

Best performances by tournament

Team statistics

Comprehensive team results by tournament

Finishes in the top four

Medal table

Champions (results, squads)

Champions (results)<br> Champions (squads)<br>

Team records

Player statistics

Multiple appearances (five-time Olympians)

Multiple medalists

Multiple gold medalists

Top goalscorers (one match, one tournament, all-time)

Top goalscorers (one match)

Top goalscorers (one tournament)

Top goalscorers (all-time)

Top goalkeepers (one match, one tournament, all-time)

Top goalkeepers (one match)

Top goalkeepers (one tournament)

Top goalkeepers (all-time)

Coach statistics

Most successful coaches

Medals as coach and player

Women's tournament

Results summary

Sources:

Confederation statistics

Best performances by tournament

Team statistics

Comprehensive team results by tournament

Finishes in the top four

Medal table

Champions (results, squads)

Champions (results)

Champions (squads)

Team records

Player statistics

Multiple appearances (four-time Olympians)

Multiple medalists

Multiple gold medalists

Top goalscorers (one match, one tournament, all-time)

Top goalscorers (one match)

Top goalscorers (one tournament)

Top goalscorers (all-time)

Top goalkeepers (one match, one tournament, all-time)

Top goalkeepers (one match)

Top goalkeepers (one tournament)

Top goalkeepers (all-time)

Coach statistics

Most successful coaches

Medals as coach and player

Overall medal table

The following table is pre-sorted by number of Olympic gold medals (in descending order), number of Olympic silver medals (in descending order), number of Olympic bronze medals (in descending order), name of the NOC (in ascending order), respectively. Last updated: 31 December 2021.

Italy is the only country to win both the men's and women's water polo tournaments at the Summer Olympics. Italy men's national team won gold medals at the 1948, 1960 and 1992 Olympics, while the women's team was Olympic champions in 2004.

Legend
  • NOC<sup>◊</sup> – NOC that won medals in both the men's and women's tournaments
  • NOC<sup>†</sup> – Defunct NOC

Winning two medals in one edition of the Games

As of the 2024 Summer Olympics, four NOCs won two medals in one edition of the Games.

Legend

  • – Hosts

Water polo people at the opening and closing ceremonies

Flag bearers

Some sportspeople were chosen to carry the national flag of their country at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games. As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, thirty water polo people from six continents were given the honour. Among them, three flag bearers won the tournament with his/her team.

Charles Smith, representing Great Britain, was the first water polo player to be a flag bearer at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

Six-time Olympian Manuel Estiarte of Spain was the flag bearer during the opening ceremony at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

After winning gold in the women's tournament, Carmela Allucci, the captain of the Italian women's water polo team, carried the national flag of Italy at the closing ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics, becoming the first female water polo player to be given the honour.

Legend

  • – Opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics
  • – Closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics
  • – Hosts
  • – Female flag bearer
  • Flag bearer<sup>‡</sup> – Flag bearer who won the tournament with his/her team

Oath takers

Some sportspeople from the host nations were chosen to take the Olympic Oath at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. As of the 2020 Summer Olympics, four water polo people were given the honour.

As an athlete, Victor Boin of Belgium took the first ever Olympic Oath at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

Eugeni Asensio, a Spanish water polo referee, took the Officials' Oath at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

As a water polo referee, Australian Peter Kerr took the Officials' Oath at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Asumi Tsuzaki of Japan took the Officials' Oath at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, becoming the first female water polo referee to be given the honour.

Legend

  • – Hosts
  • – Female oath taker
  • Oath taker<sup>‡</sup> – Oath taker who won the tournament with his/her team

See also

Notes

References

Sources

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Official Reports (IOC)

PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:

Official Results Books (IOC)

PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:

PDF documents on the FINA website:

PDF documents in the Olympic World Library:

PDF documents on the International Olympic Committee website:

Official Reports (FINA)

PDF documents on the FINA website:

Official website (IOC)

Water polo on the International Olympic Committee website:

Sports Reference

Water polo on the Sports Reference website:

Todor66

Water polo on the Todor66 website:

<section end="Sources" />

External links