Men's Water Polo has been played at the Olympics since 1900, with the women's program starting 100 years later in 2000. At the 2012 London games the women's tournament had 2 groups of 4 teams with all 8 qualifying for the 1/4 finals. The men's tournament had 2 groups of 6 with the top 4 in each, qualifying for the 1/4 finals.
The winners of the 4 previous women's Olympics have been Australia, Italy, Netherlands and USA. Australia and USA are consistently strong and will be leading contenders for the 2016 games. In our opinion this will be the final game this year.
The mens tournament has been hotly contested for 25 games and the 26th will be no different. Hungary who have won the title 9 times and been runners up 3 times will surely be hard to beat as will Croatia and Serbia. All three countries are strong contenders and if Greece can convert the Champions league form onto the international stage, they can be the surprise outsiders.
If you want to sample some of the excitement that emanates from the pool, you could do no worse than take a look at Olympiacos v Szolnoki in the 2016 Champions League semi-final game. Szolnoki led throughout the game before Ntoskas brought Olympiacos back on level terms and then take the lead through Mourikis with little time remaining. But, the excitement was still to reach fever pitch as Szolnoki equalised to bring the game 7 - 7. With only 3 seconds remaining on the clock, a long hopeful ball was thrown into the hole (this is the area 2 to 3 meters in front of the goal) and flicked into the net to take Olympiacos into the final. The final was won 6 - 4 though by Dubrovnik from Croatia.
