Water polo at the 1968 Summer Olympics

Water polo at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Venues	Francisco Márquez Olympic Pool
Date	14–26 October 1968
Competitors	162 from 15 nations
Medalists
Yugoslavia  Soviet Union  Hungary

The water polo tournament at the 1968 Summer Olympics was held from 14 to 25 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico.

Qualification

Event	Dates	Hosts	Quotas	Qualified teams
Host Nation	18 October 1963	Baden-Baden	1	Mexico
1964 Summer Olympics	11-18 October 1964	Tokyo	6 5	Hungary Yugoslavia Soviet Union Italy Romania East Germany
1967 Pan American Games	26 July - 1 August 1967	Winnipeg	3	United States Brazil Cuba
European Qualifier	3-8 June 1968	Milan	3	West Germany Netherlands Spain
Oceania Qualifier			1	Australia
Asian Qualifier			1	Japan
African Qualifier			1	Egypt
Reallocation			1	Greece
Total			16 15

Groups

GROUP A

• Australia (excluded)
• Brazil
• Cuba
• Hungary
• Soviet Union
• Spain
• United States
• West Germany

GROUP B

• East Germany
• Egypt
• Greece
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Yugoslavia

While Australia had been accepted as one of the 16 teams, the Australian Olympic Committee, considering it a waste of money to send a team, did not endorse them. The players responded by paying their own way to travel to Mexico City, but after the AOC informed the organisers, the team were barred from competing.

Squads

Main article: Water polo at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's team squads

Preliminary round

Group A

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff
1.	Hungary	12	6	6	0	0	39	14	+25
2.	Soviet Union	10	6	5	0	1	43	18	+25
3.	United States	7	6	3	1	2	37	36	+1
4.	Cuba	7	6	3	1	2	31	35	–4
5.	West Germany	4	6	2	0	4	33	34	–1
6.	Spain	1	6	0	1	5	20	37	–17
7.	Brazil	1	6	0	1	5	22	51	–29

• 14 October 1968

United States	10 – 5	Brazil
Soviet Union	11 – 4	Cuba
West Germany	5 – 3	Spain

• 15 October 1968

Cuba	9 – 2	Brazil

• 16 October 1968

Hungary	6 – 4	West Germany
United States	10 – 7	Spain

• 17 October 1968

Soviet Union	6 – 3	West Germany
Cuba	6 – 6	United States
Hungary	7 – 1	Spain

• 19 October 1968

Soviet Union	5 – 0	Spain
Hungary	5 – 1	United States
West Germany	10 – 5	Brazil

• 20 October 1968

Cuba	7 – 6	West Germany
Spain	6 – 6	Brazil
Hungary	6 – 5	Soviet Union

• 21 October 1968

Cuba	4 – 3	Spain
Soviet Union	8 – 3	United States
Hungary	8 – 2	Brazil

• 22 October 1968

Soviet Union	8 – 2	Brazil
United States	7 – 5	West Germany
Hungary	7 – 1	Cuba

Group B

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff
1.	Italy	13	7	6	1	0	48	21	+27
2.	Yugoslavia	11	7	5	1	1	65	18	+47
3.	East Germany	11	7	5	1	1	66	22	+44
4.	Netherlands	9	7	4	1	2	42	28	+14
5.	Japan	6	7	3	0	4	26	57	–31
6.	Mexico	3	7	1	1	5	27	56	–29
7.	Greece	2	7	1	0	6	34	62	–28
8.	Egypt	1	7	0	1	6	21	65	–44

• 14 October 1968

Netherlands	9 – 5	Greece
Yugoslavia	13 – 2	Egypt
Italy	9 – 2	Japan
Mexico	4 – 12	East Germany

• 15 October 1968

Japan	8 – 7	Greece
Italy	10 – 1	Egypt
East Germany	4 – 4	Yugoslavia

• 16 October 1968

Mexico	1 – 8	Netherlands
Greece	7 – 6	Egypt
Italy	5 – 4	East Germany

• 17 October 1968

Mexico	0 – 9	Yugoslavia
Netherlands	9 – 1	Japan

• 19 October 1968

East Germany	11 – 4	Greece
Japan	7 – 4	Egypt
Mexico	5 – 10	Italy
Yugoslavia	7 – 4	Netherlands

• 20 October 1968

Italy	5 – 4	Yugoslavia
East Germany	8 – 0	Japan
Mexico	11 – 8	Greece
Netherlands	6 – 3	Egypt

• 21 October 1968

Mexico	3 – 6	Japan
Yugoslavia	11 – 1	Greece
Netherlands	3 – 3	Italy
East Germany	19 – 2	Egypt

• 22 October 1968

Mexico	3 – 3	Egypt
Italy	6 – 2	Greece
East Germany	8 – 3	Netherlands
Yugoslavia	17 – 2	Japan

Classification round

• 24 October 1968 — 13th/15th place

Brazil	5 – 3	Egypt

• 24 October 1968 — 9th/12th place

Mexico	3 – 6	West Germany
Spain	5 – 0	Japan

• 24 October 1968 — 5th/8th place

East Germany	8 – 2	Cuba
United States	6 – 3	Netherlands

• 24 October 1968 — Semi Finals

Yugoslavia	8 – 6	Hungary
Soviet Union	8 – 5	Italy

Final round

• 25 October 1968 — 13th place

Brazil	5 – 2	Greece

• 25 October 1968 — 11th place

Mexico	5 – 4	Japan

• 25 October 1968 — 9th place

Spain	7 – 5	West Germany

• 25 October 1968 — 7th place

Netherlands	8 – 5	Cuba

• 25 October 1968 — 5th place

United States	6 – 4	East Germany

• 25 October 1968 — Bronze Medal Match

Hungary	9 – 4	Italy

• 25 October 1968 — Gold Medal Match

Yugoslavia	13 – 11 [aet]	Soviet Union

Final ranking

Rank	Team
	Yugoslavia
	Soviet Union
	Hungary
4.	Italy
5.	United States
6.	East Germany
7.	Netherlands
8.	Cuba
9.	Spain
10.	West Germany
11.	Mexico
12.	Japan
13.	Brazil
14.	Greece
15.	Egypt

1968 Men's Olympic Games winners
Yugoslavia First title

Medallists

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Yugoslavia Ozren Bonačić Dejan Dabović Zdravko Hebel Zoran Janković Ronald Lopatni Uroš Marović Đorđe Perišić Miroslav Poljak Mirko Sandić Karlo Stipanić Ivo Trumbić Coach: Aleksandar Sajfert	Soviet Union Vadim Gulyaev Givi Chikvanaya Boris Grishin Aleksandr Dolgushin Aleksei Barkalov Yuri Grigorovsky Vladimir Semyonov Aleksandr Shidlovsky Vyacheslav Skok Leonid Osipov Oleg Bovin Coach: Anatoly Blyumental	Hungary András Bodnár Zoltán Dömötör László Felkai Ferenc Konrád János Konrád Mihály Mayer László Sárosi János Steinmetz Endre Molnár Dénes Pócsik István Szívós, Jr. Coach: Kalman Markovits

Sources

• PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:
  • Official Report of the 1968 Olympic Games, v.3 (download, archive) (pp. 449–466, 811–826)
• Water polo on the Olympedia website
  • Water polo at the 1968 Summer Olympics (men's tournament)
• Water polo on the Sports Reference website
  • Water polo at the 1968 Summer Games (men's tournament) (archived)

External links

• NBCsports
• Results