Water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Ten nations competed in water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. The event was open only to men's teams.

Medallists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Hungary Antal Bolvári Ottó Boros Dezső Gyarmati István Hevesi László Jeney Tivadar Kanizsa György Kárpáti Kálmán Markovits Mihály Mayer István Szivós Ervin Zádor Miklos Martin	Yugoslavia Ivo Cipci Tomislav Franjković Vladimir Ivković Zdravko Ježić Hrvoje Kačić Zdravko-Ćiro Kovačić Lovro Radonjić Marijan Žužej	Soviet Union Viktor Ageev Pyotr Breus Boris Goykhman Nodar Gvakhariya Vyacheslav Kurennoy Boris Markarov P'et're Mshveniyeradze Valentin Prokopov Mikhail Ryzhak Yury Shlyapin

Results

For the team rosters see: Water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics - Men's team squads.

Preliminary round

The preliminary round consisted of a round-robin tournament held in three groups. Each team played the other teams in its group once.

Group A

Nation	Pld.	Win	Loss	Tie	GF	GA	Points
Yugoslavia	3	3	0	0	15	5	6
Soviet Union	3	2	1	0	9	6	4
Romania	3	1	2	0	9	9	2
Australia	3	0	3	0	3	16	0

28 November

14:00 - Romania def. Australia, 4-2
19:30 - Yugoslavia def. Soviet Union, 3-2

29 November

21:15 - Soviet Union def. Romania, 4-3
22:15 - Yugoslavia def. Australia, 9-1

30 November

10:30 - Yugoslavia def. Romania, 3-2
16:00 - Soviet Union def. Australia, 3-0

Group B

Nation	Pld.	Win	Loss	Tie	GF	GA	Points
Hungary	2	2	0	0	12	3	4
United States	2	1	1	0	7	9	2
Great Britain	2	0	2	0	4	11	0

28 November

20:30 - United States def. Great Britain, 5-3

29 November

15:45 - Hungary def. Great Britain, 6-1

30 November

11:30 - Hungary def. United States, 6-2

Group C

Nation	Pld.	Win	Loss	Tie	GF	GA	Points
Italy	2	2	0	0	11	3	4
Germany	2	1	1	0	7	5	2
Singapore	2	0	2	0	2	12	0

28 November

15:00 - Germany def. Singapore, 5-1

29 November

16:45 - Italy def. Singapore, 7-1

30 November

22:10 - Italy def. Germany, 4-2

Final round

The top two teams in each preliminary group advanced to the championship, in which they played each of the four other championship teams they had not previously faced. The results of the preliminary round game against the team from their group carried over into the final round.

The teams that did not advance to the championship played in a consolation tournament.

Championship

Main article: Blood in the Water match

The most famous water polo match in history is the semi-finals round match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. As the athletes left for the games, the Hungarian Revolution started and was crushed by the Soviet army. Many of the Hungarian athletes vowed never to return home and felt their only means of fighting back was in the pool.

With only two games left for each team, the Hungarians were leading in the standings, 1 point ahead of Yugoslavia and 2 ahead of the Soviets. A Soviet victory would have put them alongside the Hungarians in the standings, with the final match pairings favoring the Soviets, who would face the last-place Germans while Hungary had to compete with Yugoslavia. A Hungarian victory would ensure at least a silver medal for the team, with a draw or a win against Yugoslavia in the last game meaning gold.

The Hungary-Soviet Union confrontation was extremely bloody and violent, riddled with penalties, and the pool was later depicted as turning red from the blood spilt. The Hungarians led the Soviets 4-0 before the game was called off in the final minute to prevent angry spectators, many of them Hungarian immigrants to Australia, reacting to Valentin Prokopov punching Ervin Zador's eye open.^[1] The Hungarians went on to win the gold medal by defeating Yugoslavia 2-1 in the final. Half of the Hungarian Olympic delegation defected after the Games.

Rank	Nation	Pld.	Win	Loss	Tie	GF	GA	Points
1	Hungary	5	5	0	0	20	3	10
2	Yugoslavia	5	3	1	1	13	8	7
3	Soviet Union	5	3	2	0	14	14	6
4	Italy	5	2	3	0	10	13	4
5	United States	5	1	4	0	10	20	2
6	Germany	5	0	4	1	11	20	1

1 December

14:40 - Soviet Union def. Italy, 3-2
22:40 - Yugoslavia def. United States, 5-1

3 December

16:50 - United States def. Germany, 4-3
21:30 - Hungary def. Italy, 4-0

4 December

15:40 - Yugoslavia tied Germany, 2-2
21:00 - Italy def. United States, 3-2

5 December

16:40 - Soviet Union def. United States, 3-1
22:20 - Hungary def. Germany, 4-0

6 December

15:25 - Hungary def. Soviet Union, 4-0
21:55 - Yugoslavia def. Italy, 2-1

7 December

14:00 - Soviet Union def. Germany, 6-4
21:20 - Hungary def. Yugoslavia, 2-1

Consolation

Rank	Nation	Pld.	Win	Loss	Tie	GF	GA	Points
7	Great Britain	3	3	0	0	21	9	6
8	Romania	3	2	1	0	21	8	4
9	Australia	3	1	2	0	7	11	2
10	Singapore	3	0	3	0	8	29	0

Great Britain def. Singapore, 11-5
Great Britain def. Australia, 5-2
Romania def. Singapore, 15-1
Great Britain def. Romania, 5-2
Australia def. Singapore, 3-2
Romania def. Australia, 4-2

References

↑ Simon Burnton (December 28, 2011). "50 stunning Olympic moments No7: Hungary v Soviet Union: blood in the water". The Guardian.

International Olympic Committee medal database

Events at the 1956 Summer Olympics (Melbourne/Stockholm)

Athletics Association football Australian football (demonstration) Baseball (demonstration) Basketball Boxing Canoeing Cycling Diving Equestrian Fencing Field hockey Gymnastics Modern pentathlon Rowing Sailing Shooting Swimming Water polo Weightlifting Wrestling

Water polo at the Summer Olympics

Tournaments

Qualifications

Men	1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

Women	2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

Squads

Men	1900 1904 1908 1920 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

Women	2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

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