History of water polo

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The history of water polo as a team sport began as a demonstration of strength and swimming skill in late 19th century England and Scotland, where water sports and racing exhibitions were a feature of county fairs and festivals.^[1][2] Men's water polo was the among the first team sports introduced at the modern Olympic games in 1900. Water polo is now popular in many countries around the world, notably Europe (particularly in Hungary, Greece, Italy, Russia and the former Yugoslavia), the United States, Canada and Australia. The present-day game involves teams of seven players (plus up to six substitutes), with a water polo ball similar in size to a soccer ball but constructed of waterproof nylon.

Contents 1 Development of the game 1.1 Local rule variations 2 Olympic competition 3 International play 4 Results of the major international championships 4.1 Olympic Games 4.2 Championships organized by the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) 4.2.1 I. FINA World Aquatics Championships 4.2.2 II. FINA Water Polo World Cup 4.2.3 III. FINA Water Polo World League 5 US colleges and clubs 6 Trivia 7 Notes 8 Further reading 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Development of the game

The rules of water polo were originally developed in the late nineteenth century in Great Britain by William Wilson. The modern game originated as a form of rugby football played in rivers and lakes in England and Scotland with a ball constructed of Indian rubber. This "water rugby" came to be called "water polo" based on the English pronunciation of the Balti word for ball, pulu.^[3][4] Early play allowed brute strength, wrestling and holding opposing players underwater to recover the ball; the goalie stood outside the playing area and defended the goal by jumping in on any opponent attempting to score by placing the ball on the deck.

By the 1880s, the game evolved to include fast-paced team play with a soccer-sized ball that emphasized swimming, passing, and scoring by shooting into a goal net; players could only be tackled when holding the ball and could not be taken under water. To deal with variations in regional rules, in 1888, the London Water Polo League was founded and approved a set of rules to allow team competition, forming the basis of the present game. The first English championships were played in 1888. In 1890, the first international water polo game was played; Scotland defeated England, 4-0.^[5]

Between 1890 and 1900, the game developed in Europe, with teams competing in Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy, using British rules. A different game was being played in the United States, characterized by rough play, holding, diving underwater, and soft, semi-inflated ball that could be gripped tightly and carried underwater. As a result, European teams did not compete in the 1904 Olympic championships in St. Louis. By 1914, most US teams agreed to conform to international rules.^[6] An international water polo committee was formed in 1929, consisting of representatives from Great Britain and the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA). Rules were developed for international matches and put into effect in 1930; FINA has been the international governing body for the sport since that time.

Over the years, both technical and rule changes affected the character of the game. In 1928, Hungarian water polo coach Bela Komjadi invented the "air pass," or "dry pass", a technique in which a player directly passes the ball through the air to another player, who receives it without the ball hitting the water. Previously, players would let the ball drop in the water first and then reach out for it, but the dry pass made the offensive game more dynamic, and contributed to Hungarian dominance of water polo for 60 years.^[7] In 1936, James R. ("Jimmy") Smith, California water polo coach and author of several books on water polo mechanics, developed a water polo ball made with an inflatable bladder and a rubber fabric cover, which improved performance. The previous leather ball absorbed water and became heavier during the game. In 1949, rule changes allowed play to continue uninterrupted after a referee whistled an ordinary foul, speeding up play. In the 1970s, the exclusion foul replaced a point system for major fouls; players guilty of this foul were excluded for a 1 minute penalty and their team forced to play with fewer players. Possession of the ball was limited to 45 seconds before a scoring attempt. Time of penalties and possession have been reduced since then. The direct shot on goal from the seven (7) meter line after a free throw was allowed in 1994, and changed to a five meter throw in 2005.

[edit] Local rule variations

United States

In 2006, revisions were made to the NFHS 2006-2007 swimming/diving and water polo rulebook (USWP and NCAA rules still vary). The four and seven meter lines were merged to a five meter line. Under the revised rules, a goalkeeper may use two hands and stand on the bottom of the pool (if shallow) until the 5 meter line, and go beyond the 5 meter line according to the field rules (one hand on the ball no standing), but still not not pass the half line. The goalie may strike the ball with a clenched fist, although this is not recommended.

New cap rules were also enacted. A goalie cap must now be in quarters alternating red/dark for home and red/white for away. The goalie must be number 1, 1a, or 1b. For women, a red swim cap must be worn under the goalie cap. A team's dark swim cap is no longer acceptable as it is hard to distinguish a goalie from field players if official cap is off.

[edit] Olympic competition

Men's water polo at the Olympics was the among the first team sports introduced at the 1900 games (along with cricket, rugby, football (soccer), polo (with horses), rowing and tug of war).^[8] Women's water polo became an Olympic sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games after political protests from the Australian women's team. Such protests were rewarded when Australia won the gold medal match against the United States with a "buzzer-beater" last-minute goal, taken from outside the seven meter line.

Some of the best ever include Spain's Manuel Estiarte who played in a record six Olympics and led in scoring for four of them. Dezső Gyarmati of Hungary won water polo medals at five successive Olympic Games (gold 1952, 1956, 1964; silver 1948; bronze 1960), a record in water polo.^[9] Another major figure in the sport was Tamás Faragó,^[10] who led Hungary to Olympic Medals in 1972, 1976 and 1980. The play of American Terry Schroeder^[11] led the United States to its first Olympic silver medals in 1984 and 1988.

Main article: Blood In The Water match

The most famous water polo match in history is probably the 1956 Summer Olympics semi-final match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. As the athletes left for the games, the Hungarian revolution began, and the Soviet army crushed the uprising. Many of the Hungarian athletes vowed never to return home, and felt their only means of fighting back was by victory in the pool. The confrontation was the most bloody and violent water polo game in history, in which the pool reputedly turned red from blood. 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 Valentin Prokopov punching Ervin Zador's eye open. The Hungarians went on to win the Olympic gold medal by defeating Yugoslavia 2-1 in the final. Half of the Hungarian Olympic delegation defected after the games. A documentary by Lucy Liu, Freedom's Fury, premiered in April 2006, recounting the events of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and climaxing with this politicized game.

[edit] International play

Every 2 to 4 years since 1973, a men's Water Polo World Championship is played together with the World Swimming Championship, under the auspices of FINA. Women's water polo was added in 1986. A second tournament series, the FINA Water Polo World Cup, has been held every other year since 1979. In 2002, FINA organized the sport's first international league, the FINA Water Polo World League, in which the best national teams compete against one another in an annual season format with nearly half a million dollar purse.

Internationally, the biggest water polo competition in the world is played in the Netherlands. Prince William of England was the captain of his collegiate water polo team at St Andrew's University, Scotland. The annual Varsity Match between Oxford and Cambridge Universities is the sport's longest running rivalry, first played in 1891.^[12]

[edit] Results of the major international championships

[edit] Olympic Games

Main article: Water polo at the Summer Olympics

Olympic medals in men's water polo

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1900 Paris	Great Britain	Belgium	France (1)
			France (2)
1908 London	Great Britain	Belgium	Sweden
1912 Stockholm	Great Britain	Sweden	Belgium
1920 Antwerp	Great Britain	Belgium	Sweden
1924 Paris	France	Belgium	United States
1928 Amsterdam	Germany	Hungary	France
1932 Los Angeles	Hungary	Germany	United States
1936 Berlin	Hungary	Germany	Belgium
1948 London	Italy	Hungary	Netherlands
1952 Helsinki	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Italy
1956 Melbourne	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union
1960 Rome	Italy	Soviet Union	Hungary
1964 Tokyo	Hungary	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union	Hungary
1972 Munich	Soviet Union	Hungary	United States
1976 Montreal	Hungary	Italy	Netherlands
1980 Moscow	Soviet Union	Yugoslavia	Hungary
1984 Los Angeles	Yugoslavia	United States	West Germany
1988 Seoul	Yugoslavia	United States	Soviet Union
1992 Barcelona	Italy	Spain	Unified Team
1996 Atlanta	Spain	Croatia	Italy
2000 Sydney	Hungary	Russia	Yugoslavia
2004 Athens	Hungary	Serbia and Montenegro	Russia

Olympic medals in women's water polo

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2000 Sydney	Australia	United States	Russia
2004 Athens	Italy	Greece	United States

[edit] Championships organized by the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA)

[edit] I. FINA World Aquatics Championships

Main article: FINA World Aquatics Championships

Men

(Source: FINA Men's Water Polo Records)

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1973 Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Hungary	USSR	Yugoslavia
1975 Cali, Colombia	USSR	Hungary	Italy
1978 Berlin, Germany	Italy	Hungary	Yugoslavia
1982 Guayaquil, Ecuador	USSR	Hungary	Germany
1986 Madrid, Spain	Yugoslavia	Italy	USSR
1991 Perth, Australia	Yugoslavia	Spain	Hungary
1994 Rome, Italy	Italy	Spain	Russia
1998 Perth, Australia	Spain	Hungary	FR Yugoslavia
2001 Fukuoka, Japan	Spain	FR Yugoslavia	Russia
2003 Barcelona, Spain	Hungary	Italy	Serbia and Montenegro
2005 Montreal, Canada	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Greece
2007 Melbourne, Australia	Croatia	Hungary	Spain
2009 Rome, Italy

Women

(Source: FINA Women's Water Polo Records)

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1986 Madrid, Spain	Australia	Netherlands	United States
1991 Perth, Australia	Netherlands	Canada	United States
1994 Rome, Italy	Hungary	Netherlands	Italy
1998 Perth, Australia	Italy	Netherlands	Australia
2001 Fukuoka, Japan	Italy	Hungary	Canada
2003 Barcelona, Spain	United States	Italy	Russia
2005 Montreal, Canada	Hungary	United States	Canada
2007 Melbourne, Australia	United States	Australia	Russia
2009 Rome, Italy

[edit] II. FINA Water Polo World Cup

Main article: FINA Water Polo World Cup

Men

(Source: FINA Men's Water Polo Records)

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1979 Belgrade, Yugoslavia	Hungary	United States	Yugoslavia
1981 Long Beach, California	USSR	Yugoslavia	Cuba
1983 Malibu, California	USSR	Germany	Italy
1985 Duisburg, Germany	Germany	United States	Spain
1987 Thessaloniki, Greece	Yugoslavia	USSR	Germany
1989 Berlin	Yugoslavia	Italy	Hungary
1991 Barcelona, Spain	United States	Yugoslavia	Spain
1993 Athens, Greece	Italy	Hungary	Australia
1995 Atlanta, Georgia	Hungary	Italy	Russia
1997 Athens, Greece	United States	Greece	Hungary
1999 Sydney, Australia	Hungary	Italy	Spain
2002 Belgrade, Serbia	Russia	Hungary	FR Yugoslavia
2006 Budapest, Hungary	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Spain

Women

(Source: FINA Women's Water Polo Records)

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1979 Merced, California	United States	Netherlands	Australia
1980 Breda, Netherlands	Netherlands	United States	Canada
1981 Brisbane, Australia	Canada	Netherlands	Australia
1983 Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada	Netherlands	United States	Australia
1984 Irvine, California	Australia	United States	Netherlands
1988 Christchurch, New Zealand	Netherlands	Hungary	Canada
1989 Eindhoven, Netherlands	Netherlands	United States	Hungary
1991 Long Beach, California	Netherlands	Australia	United States
1993 Catania, Italy	Netherlands	Italy	Hungary
1995 Sydney, Australia	Australia	Netherlands	Hungary
1997 Nancy, France	Netherlands	Russia	Australia
1999 Winnipeg, Canada	Netherlands	Australia	Italy
2002 Perth, Australia	Hungary	United States	Canada
2006 Tianjin, China	Australia	Italy	Russia

[edit] III. FINA Water Polo World League

Main article: FINA Water Polo World League

Men

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2002 Patras, Greece	Russia	Spain	Hungary
2003 New York	Hungary	Italy	United States
2004 Long Beach, California	Hungary	Serbia and Montenegro	Greece
2005 Belgrade, Serbia	Serbia and Montenegro	Hungary	Germany
2006 Athens	Serbia and Montenegro	Spain	Greece

Women

Year and City	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2004 Long Beach, California	United States	Hungary	Italy
2005 Kirishi, Russia	Greece	Russia	Australia
2006 Athens	United States	Italy	Russia

(Source: FINA)

[edit] US colleges and clubs

Today club water polo is gaining popularity in the United States. Though the majority of domestic club teams are based in California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas, New England and Missouri preparatory high schools also often field teams. Club water polo teams in the United States often compete in national championships such as Junior Olympics, National Club Championships, and the Speedo Cup. Club teams from Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Michigan were entered at the 2005 USWP Junior Olympics. Water polo club coaches such as Johnny Bega and Rich Corso often lead age group athletes to win gold, silver, and bronze medals at such prestigious tournaments.

Aniko Pelle (Hungary) and Sofia Konoukh (Russia) were among the first of an increasing number of international players competing in U.S. collegiate women's water polo. Because of water polo's increased popularity globally, the influence of international coaches like USC's Jovan Vavic from the former Yugoslavia, and the perks of attending an American college, international players are attracted to the premier US colleges. The 2005 Hawaii women's water polo team, coached by Canadian Michel Roy, has nine international players, the most of any team in the nation.

Teams from California dominate at the collegiate level. In the United States, water polo players tend to have prestigious academic backgrounds as well. A number of players, including former USA team captain Wolf Wigo, who retired after Athens 2004, Jacqueline Frank DeLuca, bronze medal Olympic goalie, and international phenom Tony Azevedo attended Stanford University. The sport's most notable balancing act to date includes Omar Amr,^[13] who played on the US National Team while attending Harvard Medical School and recovering from a near career ending knee injury in 2001.

College championships

In the 2007 NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship, UCLA beat Stanford 5-4, for their third consecutive championship title after beating USC in 2006 and Stanford in 2005. In the 2006 Men's NCAA Finals, the UC Berkeley Golden Bears defeated the USC Trojans 7-6.^[14] In 1999, the Peter J. Cutino Award was established by the San Francisco Olympic Club, and is presented annually to the top American male and female collegiate water polo player. Two USC players, Juraj Zatovic and Lauren Wenger won the 2006 Cutino awards. In 2007, John Mann from UC Berkeley and Kelly Rulon from UCLA won the Cutinos.

[edit] Trivia

• Dancehall musician Sean Paul is a former member of Jamaica's national water polo team.
• Former Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen played the sport competitively.
• Former major league baseball commissioner and US Olympic Committee chair Peter Ueberroth was a water polo player at San Jose State.
• Captain Jonathan Archer (played by actor Scott Bakula), a fictional character in the television series Star Trek: Enterprise, played water polo for Stanford University and competed in the 2134 North American Water Polo Regionals against Princeton University.^[15]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Charroin, Pascal (1998). L'eau et la balle: Une histoire du water-polo (in French). Harmattan, 248 pages. ISBN 2-7384-6397-5. 
• Norris (Ed.), Jim (April 1990). The World Encyclopedia of Water Polo by James Roy Smith. Olive Press, 513 pages. ISBN 0-933380-05-4. 

[edit] See also

• Glossary of Water Polo
• List of water polo organizations
• Water polo

[edit] External links

• Waterpolo Competitions and Winners Worldwide
• FINA Media Room

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