Water polo began as an Olympic sport in 1900, but didn’t feature women’s water polo until 2000. The men’s tournament grew as large as 21 in 1952 and was as small as four in 1964 before settling on 12 since 1976. The women’s tournament has been between eight teams other than the first one in 2000 which was six. Water polo will be played at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center which is in part of the Barra zone and outdoors, as well as the Olympic Aquatics Stadium which is an indoor stadium which is a temporary venue. The US men qualified at the Pan American Games in July of 2015 while the women qualified in a world qualification tournament in March.
The Team:
The US teams consist of 13 men and 13 women. Unlike 2012 when most of the athletes had Olympic experience only eight of them are back from 2012. Four played in Beijing as well with one man in his third Olympic and one who is back for number four. Merrill Moses is the veteran of the group as he will turn 39 next week while Aria Fischer on the women’s team turned 17 earlier this year.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Water Polo
Men:
Tony Azevedo****
McQuin Baron
Bret Bonanni
Alex Bowen
Luca Cupido
Thomas Dunstan
Ben Hallock
John Mann*
Merrill Moses**
Alex Obert
Alex Roelse
Josh Samuels
Jesse Smith***
Women:
KK Clark
Kami Craig**
Rachel Fattal
Aria Fischer
Makenzie Fischer
Kaeligh Gilchrist
Sami Hill
Ashleigh Johnson
Courtney Mathewson*
Madeline Musselmann
Kiley Neushul
Melissa Seidemann*
Maggie Steffens*
* – Was on team in London – 2012
** – Was on team in 2012 and 2008 (Beijing)
*** – Was on team in 2012, 2008, and 2004 (Athens)
**** – Was on team in 2012, 2008, 2004 and 2000 (Sydney)
Format:
The water polo tournament for both genders will start with a group stage of round robin play. The men’s competition features two groups of six, the women’s competition has two groups of four. Draws are possible and the tiebreakers are head-to-head results. In the men’s tournament the top four in each group move onto the quarterfinals, while in the women’s tournament all eight will go into the quarterfinals. From there it’s just straight knockout with shootouts and no OT at the end of regulation.
Schedule:
All times ET
Saturday, August 6th
9:20 AM – Men’s Group Stage – USA vs. Croatia
Monday, August 8th
10:40 AM – Men’s Group Stage – USA vs. Spain
Tuesday, August 9th
10:40 AM – Women’s Group Stage – USA vs. Spain
Wednesday, August 10th
10:40 AM – Men’s Group Stage – USA vs. France
Thursday, August 11th
10:40 AM – Women’s Group Stage – USA vs. China
Friday, August 12th
10:40 AM – Men’s Group Stage – USA vs. Montenegro
Saturday, August 13th
12 PM – Women’s Group Stage – USA vs. Hungary
Sunday, August 14th
2:30 PM – Men’s Group Stage – USA vs. Italy
Monday, August 15th
1:10/2:30/5:20/6:40 PM – Women’s Quarterfinals
Tuesday, August 16th
10/11:20 AM/2:10/3:30 PM – Men’s Quarterfinals
Wednesday, August 17th
10 AM/2:10 PM – Women’s Classification 5-8
11:20 AM/3:30 PM – Women’s Semifinals
Thursday, August 18th
10 AM/2:10 PM – Men’s Classification 5-8
11:20 AM/3:30 PM – Men’s Semifinals
Friday, August 19th
9 AM – Women’s Classification 7-8
10:20 AM – Women’s Bronze Medal Match
1:10 PM – Women’s Classification 5-6
2:30 PM – Women’s Gold Medal Match
Saturday, August 19th
10:40 AM – Men’s Classification 7-8
12 PM – Men’s Bronze Medal Match
3:30 PM – Men’s Classification 5-6
4:50 PM – Men’s Gold Medal Match
Past Results:
The US has medaled in women’s water polo each year since it was started including their first gold last time in London. The US Men have won six medals, tied for fifth most all-time, but have never won gold and last medaled in 2008 when they won silver. Three of the men on this year’s team have silvers from Beijing while four of the women have golds from London and one, Kami Craig, has a silver from Beijing as well.
