Water polo at the 1928 Summer Olympics

Men's water polo
at the Games of the IX Olympiad
Men's water polo; at the Games of the IX Olympiad
	winning German team
Venue	Amsterdam
Dates	4–11 August
Competitors	112 from 14 nations
Medalists
	← 1924 1932 →

The 1928 Summer Olympics Water Polo event was held between the fourth and eleventh of August. The final results of the tournament follow below.^[1]^[2]

Competition format

The water polo tournament consisted primarily of a single-elimination bracket that determined the gold and silver medals. The bronze medal was supposed to be awarded through a modified Bergvall system tournament, in which the teams who lost to the top two nations (that is, Belgium and Great Britain—who had lost to Germany—and France, the United States, and Argentina—who had lost to Hungary) would conduct another single-elimination tournament for the third place.^[2] However, the tournament organizers did not understand the system.^[2] The Official Report lists three third-place matches, in which France beat Great Britain, the United States, and Argentina in succession.^[3] Sports-reference also lists two additional matches, between the United States and Malta and between the Netherlands and Belgium, also stating that "some of the matches played may have been friendlies or exhibitions."^[2] The France–Great Britain match is treated as the bronze medal game herein.

Results

For the team rosters see: Water polo at the 1928 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads.

Bracket

Round of 16		Quarterfinals		Semifinals		Final

Czechoslovakia	2
Great Britain	4	Great Britain	5
Switzerland	1	Netherlands	3
Netherlands	11			Great Britain	5
Belgium	11			Germany	8
Ireland	1	Belgium	3
		Germany	5
						Germany	5
						Hungary	2
		United States	0
Hungary	14	Hungary	5
Argentina	0			Hungary	5	Third place
Malta	3			France	3
Luxembourg	1	Malta	0			Great Britain	1
Spain	0	France	16			France	8
France	4

Round of 16

4 August 1928	OR p. 807	Czechoslovakia	2–4	Great Britain	Amsterdam Referees: J.A. Ruddy (USA)
		Scoring by half: 0–1, 2–3

5 August 1928	OR p. 807	Switzerland	1–11	Netherlands	Amsterdam Referees: L. Beleznay (HUN)
		Scoring by half: 0–3, 1–8

5 August 1928	OR p. 808	Belgium	11–1	Ireland	Amsterdam Referees: R. Morberger (AUT)
		Scoring by half: 6–0, 5–1

4 August 1928	OR p. 808	Hungary	14–0	Argentina	Amsterdam Referees: C. Minnes Jr. (NED)
		Scoring by half: 9–0, 5–0

5 August 1928	OR p. 809	Malta	3–1	Luxembourg	Amsterdam Referees: M. Blitz (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 1–1, 2–0

4 August 1928	OR p. 810	Spain	0–4	France	Amsterdam Referees: E. Speisegger (HUN)
		Scoring by half: 0–2, 0–2

Quarterfinals

6 August 1928	OR p. 810	Great Britain	5–3	Netherlands	Amsterdam Referees: P. Beulque (FRA)
		Scoring by half: 2–2, 1–1 OT: 2–0

6 August 1928	OR p. 811	Belgium	3–5	Germany	Amsterdam Referees: J. Hodgson (GBR)
		Scoring by half: 2–0, 1–3 OT: 0–2

6 August 1928	OR p. 811	United States	0–5	Hungary	Amsterdam Referees: M. Nussbaum (GER)
		Scoring by half: 0–2, 0–3

6 August 1928	OR p. 812	Malta	0–16	France	Amsterdam Referees: A. Delahaye (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 0–8, 0–8

Semifinals

7 August 1928	OR p. 812	Great Britain	5–8	Germany	Amsterdam Referees: M. Blitz (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 1–5, 4–3

7 August 1928	OR p. 813	Hungary	5–3	France	Amsterdam Referees: A. Delahaye (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 1–1, 4–2

Bronze medal game

11 August 1928	OR p. 814	France	8–1	Great Britain	Amsterdam Referees: A. Delahaye (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 4–1, 4–0

Final

10 August 1928	OR p. 814	Germany	5–2	Hungary	Amsterdam Referees: M. Blitz (BEL)
		Scoring by half: 0–2, 2–0 OT: 3–0

Participating nations

Each country was allowed to enter a team of 11 players and they all were eligible for participation.

A total of 109(*) water polo players from 14 nations competed at the Amsterdam Games:

(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.

Final standings

Place^[1]	Nation
1	Germany (GER)
2	Hungary (HUN)
3	France (FRA)
4	Great Britain (GBR)
5	Netherlands (NED)
6	Belgium (BEL)
7	United States (USA)
8	Malta (MLT)
9	Spain (ESP)
10	Czechoslovakia (TCH)
11	Luxembourg (LUX)
12	Switzerland (SUI)
13	Argentina (ARG)
14	Ireland (IRL)

References

^ ^a ^b "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Water Polo at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
^ Official Report, pp. 806, 814–15.

Sources

PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:
- Official Report of the 1928 Olympic Games (download, archive) (pp. 746–757, 797–807)
Water polo on the Olympedia website
- Water polo at the 1928 Summer Olympics (men's tournament)
Water polo on the Sports Reference website
- Water polo at the 1928 Summer Games (men's tournament) (archived)

52°20′51″N 4°51′22″E / 52.3475°N 4.8561°E / 52.3475; 4.8561

[HistoFINA_PDF-1] "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.

[SR-2] "Water Polo at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2019.

[OR3rd-3] Official Report, pp. 806, 814–15.

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