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Water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics

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Water polo
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
VenuesSwimming and Diving Stadium
Date28 November – 7 December 1956
Competitors96 from 10 nations
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s)  Hungary
2nd place, silver medalist(s)  Yugoslavia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  Soviet Union
← 1952
1960 →

Ten nations competed in water polo at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne.[1][2]

Medallists

Gold Silver Bronze
 Hungary[1]
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.

External images
image icon Ervin Zádor leaving the pool with a cut eye (National Library of Australia).[3]
image icon First-aid officer escorting Ervin Zádor to the medical room for treatment of his cut eye (National Library of Australia).[3]
image icon Ervin Zádor in the medical room, receiving treatment, protected by a police officer (National Library of Australia)[3]
image icon Ervin Zádor’s cut eye (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]
image icon Ervin Zádor’s cut eye (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]
image icon Spectators invading the concourse (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]
image icon Spectators invading the concourse (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]
image icon Spectators invading the concourse (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]
image icon Spectators invading the concourse (Public Record Office Victoria)[3]

Championship

Main article: Blood in the Water match

The most famous water polo match in history was 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.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] 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.[11][12][13][14]

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

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

See also

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ "Water Polo at the 1956 Melbourne Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Retrieved 24 October 2017.
  4. ^ Simon Burnton (28 December 2011). "50 stunning Olympic moments No7: Hungary v Soviet Union: blood in the water". The Guardian.
  5. ^ "Cold War violence erupts at Melbourne Olympics". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 December 1956. Retrieved 24 March 2007.
  6. ^ Riot Narrowly Avoided at Olympic Pool, The Canberra Times, (Friday, 7 December 1956), p.1
  7. ^ Olympic Games Peace Shattered: Fists Fly in Pool Fracas, The Argus, (Friday, 7 December 1956), pp.1,3.
  8. ^ Hungarian Injured in Polo, The Age, (Friday, 7 December 1956), p.1.
  9. ^ Player Punched in Rough Water Polo, The Age, (Friday, 7 December 1956), p.1.
  10. ^ That evening, a similar anti-Russian protest occurred during a fencing match between Hungarian Pál Kovács and Russian Lev Kuznetsov at the St Kilda Town Hall: Mr. Brundage hears crowd hoot Russian, The Argus, (Friday, 7 December 1956), p.14; Tireless Hungarian Takes Sabre Title: Appeal to Crowd, The Age, Friday, 7 December 1956), p.12.
  11. ^ Nine Hungarians Miss First Plane for Home, The Canberra Times, (Saturday, 8 December 1956), p.3.
  12. ^ Hungarians Stay Behind, The Age, (Monday, 10 December 1956), p.1.
  13. ^ 46 Hungarians Refuse to go Home, and . . . Security Men Guard "Village", The Argus, (Monday, 10 December 1956), p.3.
  14. ^ Security Guard for Hungarian Athletes, The Canberra Times, (Tuesday, 11 December 1956), p.3.

Sources

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