Paris 2024 Olympic Games: calendar, date, location, history… Everything you need to know about water polo

Le water-polo. MIDI LIBRE – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Avant les Jeux Olympiques (26 juillet-11 août), découvrez le mode d’emploi de toutes les disciplines. Focus sur le water-polo.

The origins

In the mid-19th century, a water ball game, "water-derby", was played in Great Britain. It is in this country that the rules of "water baseball" will be written. in 1876 by William Wilson, before the sport was renamed "water handball" in 1880.

Under the name of water polo, it entered the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris. Women's water polo appeared a century later at the Sydney Games.

How it works?

Water polo is a type of aquatic handball that pits teams of 7 players against each other in a pool measuring 20m by 30m for the men's tournament and 25m long for the women's tournament. The pool is 2m deep.

Each team tries to score in the opponent's goal, which is 3m wide and 90cm high. During the match, players are not allowed to touch the sides or bottom of the pool. It is estimated that players swim up to 5km per match.

Matches are played in four periods of 8 minutes. Each team has 30 seconds to score a goal before possession is returned to the opponent.

The Competition

Format: the 12 men's teams and 10 women's teams are divided into two groups, with a championship format, in which each team meets all the other countries in the group.

The top eight teams advance to the quarter-finals, then the semi-finals and the final. The two teams beaten in the semi-finals face off for bronze.

Thomas Vernoux, the X factor

He swims very fast, shoots very hard and hurts his opponents very badly thanks to his impressive build: at 22 years old, the Frenchman Thomas Vernoux is considered one of the best players of water polo in the world and established himself as the X factor of the Blues. To express his talent, the young man from a family of polo players relies on an extraordinary physique, 1.96 m and 105 kilos.

In the wake of Vernoux, the Blues obtained the best result in their history at the Doha World Cup last February, finishing just off the podium. They can dream of a medal at home, 100 years after the Blues' only title during the 1924 Games.

Four in a row for the Americans?

Since the arrival of women's water polo at the Games in 2000 in Sydney, the Americans have won half of the titles, or three out of six. Crowned in 2012, 2016 and 2021, they are the big favorites to offer themselves a fourth consecutive coronation, thanks in particular to their leader Maggie Steffens, top scorer in the history of the Games. Last February at the World Championships in Doha, they won an eighth world title.

The calendar

Competition dates: July 27 to August 11

Women and men alternate days of competition. .

The Olympic venues

The first matches of the preliminary rounds take place in the Saint-Denis aquatic center, a new setting built for the Games. The competition continues until the finals in the pools installed at Paris La Défense Arena, the largest concert hall in Europe.