Olympic Results Digest: American Women, Serbian Men Defend Water Polo Golds

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Water Polo: Saturday, July 24 – Saturday, August 7, 2021
  • Men’s Water Polo: Sunday, July, 25 – Sunday, August 8, 2021
• Where: Tatsumi International Swimming Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Full aquatics schedule
• What You Need to Know
• Stream on NBC Olympics
• Results

In our final edition of Olympic Results Digest, giving you a quick encyclopedia-esque look at the results from all of the aquatic disciplines in Tokyo, it’s time to give water polo its due.

Both gold medal-winning teams from Rio defended their titles in Tokyo, with the United States women outscoring their opponents 45-21 in the knockout stage for a third straight Olympic gold while the Serbian men won a second consecutive title with a string of hard-fought victories.

Other Olympic Results Digests:

• Pool Swimming
• Marathon Swimming
• Diving
• Artistic Swimming

Women’s Tournament

The American women were the undisputed favorites after going undefeated at three straight major championships (2016 Olympics, 2017 & 2019 World Championships), and although that streak was ended in Tokyo, they still retained the gold in dominant fashion.

The U.S. opened with a 25-4 shellacking of host Japan, and then after a 12-7 win over China, lost a nailbiter to the Hungarians, 10-9. They would close out the preliminary round with an 18-5 win over ROC.

Spain set the pace in the other group, finishing with the same record as the U.S. (three wins, no draws, one loss) and a similar goal differential thanks to a 29-4 win over South Africa.

The U.S. walked through Canada (16-5) and the ROC (15-11) to reach the gold medal match, while the Spaniards topped China (11-7) and Hungary (8-6).

In the end the final was never close, as the Americans opened up a 4-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back, ultimately winning 14-5 for the gold.

The bronze medal match saw the Hungarians win 11-9 over ROC for back-to-back third-place finishes.

GROUP ‘A’ STANDINGS

GROUP ‘B’ STANDINGS

*Qualified for quarterfinals

KNOCKOUT STAGE

• Full women’s water polo results summary

FINAL STANDINGS

Note: countries play additional “classification” games for rankings 5-8.

Men’s Tournament

Spain emerged as the team to beat in the men’s tournament through the group stage, compiling a perfect 5-0 record that included wins over Group ‘B’ foes Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro—the first, second and fourth-place finishers at the 2016 Olympics.

Group ‘A’ was led by Greece, with the team putting up four victories and one draw, which came against the 2019 world champion Italians. Italy also tied with Hungary, but the Greeks had topped the Hungarians, 10-9, on the first day of competition to sit atop the standings heading to the knockout stage.

Hungary then knocked out the 2016 Olympic silver medalists from Croatia in the quarter-finals, and the defending Olympic champs from Serbia upended the reigning world champion Italians. Spain beat the U.S. and Greece beat Montenegro, setting up four powerhouse nations for an epic clash in the semis.

Greece pulled away late to beat Hungary, 9-6, while the Serbians came back from a two-goal deficit in the fourth quarter to take down the undefeated Spanish team, 10-9.

In the final, Serbia had five players score two or more goals as they defended their Olympic title with a 13-10 win over the Greeks, while the Hungarians ousted Spain, 9-5, for the bronze.

GROUP ‘A’ STANDINGS

GROUP ‘B’ STANDINGS

*Qualified for quarterfinals

KNOCKOUT STAGE

• Full men’s water polo results summary

FINAL STANDINGS

Note: countries play additional “classification” games for rankings 5-8.