The Tournament
The withdrawal of South Africa meant Romania was elevated to the 12, making for a tougher tournament and no team can say it is in the “group of death”. Every match will be cut-throat and played like a final. There is no margin for error. There are no second chances.
From Tokyo’s line-up, Kazakhstan and South Africa have been replaced by Romania and France.
The competition is structured in two groups of six and teams need to finish in the top four to have any chance of continuing in the competition. Only the top eight will contest matches on the final three days — quarterfinals, moving to semifinals for classifications one to eight and then on the final day, the actual top-three classification finals. The fourth final — 7th & 8th — will be contested following the women’s gold-medal final on day 15 of water polo competition.
The fifth-placed teams in each group will be classified 9th-10th according to their win-loss record or goal average if a tiebreaker is required
The sixth-placed teams in each group will be classified 11th-12th according to the same criteria.
The quarterfinals are where most top teams “start” their tournament. Group winners have the advantage of playing the fourth team in the other group while second-placed teams clash with the third-best in the other group. While group winners will be expected to win through to the quarterfinals, this is not always the case and the tightness of this competition means nothing can be left to chance. The battles in the middle ground will be the fiercest of the tournament.
The Group Stage
In Group A, Croatia, Italy and Greece could be regarded as the top three. However, USA, in particular, will be out to dispute that ranking and possibly help send Montenegro and Romania to the bottom two positions. However, these are hard calls.
In Group B, Serbia, Spain and Hungary could be considered the cream of the crop. However, the feisty Japanese could cause an upset; Australia finished second in a lead-up tournament to Serbia and France is the host in front of a home crowd and comes off fourth place in Doha at the most recent World Aquatics Championships.
Reputations will be in tatters for some while others could be achieving lifetime bests.
The Venues
Water polo has some of the hottest tickets in Paris and expect teams to explode into action at the Aquatics Centre for the first week. Following swimming, water polo shifts to the La Defense Arena where the spectator seating more than triples to 17,000. The last time that number was achieved was in Athens 2004 and before that in Sydney 2000 for the medal rounds at the huge SOPAC facility.
The Contenders
Group A
Croatia
Croatia has had a stellar year with silver at the Europeans followed by world championship gold in Doha. Those results were a huge turnaround from ninth at the Fukuoka 2023 world championships. Head Coach Ivica Tucak has been at the helm for a decade or more and this could be his year. Croatia has played three Olympic finals, winning at London 2012 under super coach Ratko Rudic and more recently, losing to Serbia in 2016. Factor in having probably the best goalkeeper in the world in Marko Bijac (above), and six other players from Tokyo. Bijac, Luka Loncar and Luka Bukic are all making their third Olympic appearances and the towering Olympic and triple world champion left-hander Maro Jokovic an incredible fifth Olympics.
Greece
Greece was the 2020 silver medallist, going down 13-10 in the final to Serbia. It was Greece’s first medal in 16 appearances. Since then, Greece has maintained a top-five position at the three world championships — fifth this year, silver in 2023 and bronze in 2022. Italy was the team that upset Greece in the Doha quarterfinals, losing 11-10, before advancing to the fifth-place play-off against Serbia, winning 15-11. Leading the team is now four-time Olympian Ioannis Fountoulis, alongside six other returnees from Tokyo, including Stylianos Argyropoulos, Angelos Vlachopoulos and Alexandros Papanastasiou.
Italy
Italy’s line-up for Paris has only five players from Tokyo, but with any Alessandro Campagna-coached team, only the best will do. Like Greece, Italy has been in the top five at world championships since —silver this year, fifth in Fukuoka 2023 and runner-up in penalty shootout in 2022. Italy is a four-time champion, but seventh in Tokyo was a major disappointment with bronze and silver medals before that. You have to go back to 1992 when Campagna was playing, for the last of three Olympic golds. The effervescent Francesco di Fulvio will captain the team at his second Olympics and he will be aided by three-time Olympians Nicholas Presciutti and goalkeeper Marco del Lungo. Italy beat France, Hungary and Japan in a recent tournament.
Montenegro
Montenegro has a mix of new and old with six returnees from Tokyo. As Serbia & Montenegro, the 2004 final was lost to Hungary and three consecutive bronze-medal-final losses from 2008-2016 and eighth in Tokyo. The three recent world championships all yielded eighth position. Montenegro lost the services of the great Aleksandar Ivovic after Tokyo and the void is hard to fill. Dusan Matkovic, Stefan Vidovic and goalkeeper Petar Tesanovic will have big roles to play if the team wishes to make the quarterfinals and hope to make the medal round.
Romania
Romanian head coach Bogdan Rath has Olympic experience as a player for Romania (1996) and for Italy (2004) and is now coaching his native Romania to its first Olympics since 2012 when it finished 10th. Romania’s late inclusion to the 12-team line-up is just reward for some excellent water polo in Doha, finishing 10th. The team showed that it deserves more top-level play, with good outings against Hungary, Italy, USA and Montenegro while defeating Kazakhstan and China in Doha. Romania’s defence is built on goalkeeper Marius-Florin Tic (above) while the attack is a team effort with Tudor-Andrei Fulea, Vlad-Luca Georgescu and Andrei Neamtu the shooters to watch.
United States of America
USA found itself outside the top eight in Doha after some calls that left players red-faced, disrupting the natural proceedings. USA should have been in the eight and will make sure team discipline helps push it close to a medal in Paris. USA has eight Olympic medals with the latest, silver in Beijing 2008. It was sixth in Tokyo. There are 10 returnees from Tokyo and with powerful centre forwards — Ben Hallock and Alex Bowen — and sharp outside shooters, USA will be a handful. Hannes Daube, youngster Ryder Dodd and Max Irving provide plenty of punch. Hallock, Bowen, Luca Cupido and Alex Obert are in their third Olympic tournaments.
Group B
Australia
The Aussie Sharks front with only three players from Tokyo — co-captains Nathan Power and Blake Edwards, alongside Blake's brother Lachlan Edwards at centre forward. Luke Pavillard showed in Doha that he can shoot and will be worth watching. Australia slipped out of the top 10 in Doha, defeating China for 11th and the Olympic cauldron will prove hot. It has had wins over France, Montenegro and Japan this year, but Hungary, Serbia and Spain will prove tough assignments. Australia’s best Olympic performance has been two fifth placings (1984 and 1992) and was ninth in Tokyo.
France
France has gained the services of former Italian world champion (Gwangju 2019) and 2016 Rio bronze medallist Michael Bodegas. He plies his trade with CN Marseille, so knows the French structure well and will be a tremendous boost to the team. Inspirational captain Ugo Crousillat and scoring wizard Thomas Vernoux spearhead a team that brilliantly and unexpectedly made it through to the medal round in Doha last February. France’s last visit was 11th in Rio 2016 and 11th in Barcelona 1992 before that. One hundred years ago, France stood atop the dais. What a repeat of that would do for the Games on the last day of Olympic competition!
Japan
Japan came so close to filling a top-eight berth in Tokyo three years ago and is out to break into the illustrious group this time after some encouraging results in Europe leading into Paris that included beating France, losing to Italy by a goal and dipping to Hungary by four. High goal-scorer Yusuke Inaba leads six fellow players who competed in Tokyo while Toi Suzuki will hold the reins this time around from Keigo Okawa, now at his third Olympic Games alongside goalkeeper Katsuyuki Tanamura and Seiya Adachi.
Hungary
Denes Varga will captain Hungary for the third consecutive time in his fifth Olympic Games, having won gold in 2008 and bronze in 2020. He joins greats like Dezso Gyamarti, Tibor Benedek and Tamas Kasas in the Hungarian five-times club. Balazs Harai collects his fourth Olympic cap while Marton Vamos, Krisztian Manhercz and Gergo Zalanki suit up for a third. There are 11 players who won the world title in Fukuoka last year. This is a team dedicated to perfection and while Italy beat it by two goals in a recent tournament, anything can happen in Paris as the first part of the century showed.
Serbia
Serbia returns with double champions Dusan Mandic (432 goals; fourth Olympics and also a bronze medallist), Sava Randelovic and Nikola Jaksic along with single gold medallists Strahinja Rasovic (241 matches) and Milos Cuk. There are eight Olympic debutantes. The mix of old and new will see Serbia hoping for a fifth consecutive dais visit. The two Olympics before that it was part of Serbia & Montenegro and Yugoslavia — every dais this century.
Spain
Spain is a team to be feared, winning the European crown for the first time in January and finishing third in Doha. With captain Felipe Perrone competing in his fifth Olympic Games (four for Spain and one from Brazil), he has a point to prove, never having won Olympic gold. He has world-championship and World Cup gold in recent years and European gold and just needs the Olympic crown to cap a career that started with his first world championships way back in 2001. Perrone will be swimming and shooting for every minute and he will be backed up by Alvaro Granados and the superstar centre-forward, Roger Tahull, playing his third Olympics. Goalkeeper Unai Aguirre will be the final brick in the Spanish defence.
Day 2 Schedule
Match 01. 10:30. Group B, Australia v Spain
Match 02. 12:05. Group B, Serbia v Japan
Match 03. 15:00. Group A, Italy v United States of America
Match 04. 16:35. Group A, Croatia v Montenegro
Match 05. 19:30. Group B, France v Hungary
Match 06. 21:05. Group A, Romania v Greece