Water polo at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Water polo
at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Tournament details
Host country	United States
City	Atlanta
Venue(s)	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center
Dates	20 July 1996 – 28 July 1996
Event	1 (men's)
Teams	12 (from 3 confederations)
Competitors	153
Final positions
Champions	Spain (1st title)
Runners-up	Croatia
Third place	Italy
Fourth place	Hungary
Tournament statistics
Matches	48
Multiple; appearances	5-time Olympian(s): 1; 4-time Olympian(s): 3
Top scorer(s)	Tibor Benedek (19 goals)
Most saves	Arie van de Bunt (81 saves)

The water polo tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics was held from 20 to 28 July 1996, in Atlanta, United States.^[1]^[2]

Qualification

Qualification	Date	Host	Berths	Qualified
Host nation	18 September 1990	Tokyo	1	United States
1995 World Cup	12-17 September 1995	Atlanta	3	Hungary
				Italy
				Russia
1994 World Championships	2-10 September 1994	Rome	2	Spain
1994 World Championships	2-10 September 1994	Rome	2	Croatia
Intercontinental qualification	10-18 February 1996	Berlin	6	Yugoslavia Greece Netherlands Ukraine Germany Romania
Total			12

Teams

GROUP A

GROUP B

Squads

Preliminary round

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Hungary	5	5	0	0	47	38	+9	10
2	FR Yugoslavia	5	3	1	1	46	44	+2	7
3	Spain	5	3	0	2	39	33	+6	6
4	Russia	5	2	1	2	42	38	+4	5
5	Germany	5	1	0	4	36	45	−9	2
6	Netherlands	5	0	0	5	36	48	−12	0

Source:

20 July 1996	Hungary	8–7	Russia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

20 July 1996	Spain	9–3	Germany	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

20 July 1996	FR Yugoslavia	11–8	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	Hungary	9–8	Germany	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	Russia	9–9	FR Yugoslavia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	Spain	8–7	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	Hungary	10–8	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	Russia	10–8	Germany	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	FR Yugoslavia	9–7	Spain	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	Hungary	8–7	Spain	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	Russia	10–5	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	FR Yugoslavia	9–8	Germany	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	Germany	9–8	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	Hungary	12–8	FR Yugoslavia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	Spain	8–6	Russia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Italy	5	5	0	0	48	38	+10	10
2	United States	5	4	0	1	45	37	+8	8
3	Croatia	5	3	0	2	51	39	+12	6
4	Greece	5	2	0	3	37	38	−1	4
5	Romania	5	0	1	4	31	45	−14	1
6	Ukraine	5	0	1	4	33	48	−15	1

Source:

20 July 1996	Croatia	8–5	Greece	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

20 July 1996	Italy	10–7	United States	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

20 July 1996	Romania	6–6	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	Croatia	11–6	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	Italy	8–6	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

21 July 1996	United States	9–7	Greece	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	Greece	8–5	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	Italy	10–8	Croatia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

22 July 1996	United States	9–7	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	Croatia	16–8	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	Italy	10–8	Greece	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

23 July 1996	United States	10–5	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	Greece	9–6	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	Italy	10–9	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

24 July 1996	United States	10–8	Croatia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Classification round

	Team	Points	G	W	D	L	GF	GA	Diff
9.	Germany	6	3	3	0	0	29	16	+13
10.	Netherlands	3	3	1	1	1	25	26	–1
11.	Romania	2	3	1	0	2	25	28	–3
12.	Ukraine	1	3	0	1	2	21	30	–9

26 July 1996	Germany	10–4	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

26 July 1996	Netherlands	10–8	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

27 July 1996	Germany	9–6	Netherlands	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

27 July 1996	Romania	11–8	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

28 July 1996	Netherlands	9–9	Ukraine	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

28 July 1996	Germany	10–6	Romania	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Final round

Quarter-finals		Semi-finals		Final



Hungary	12

Greece	8
		Hungary	6

		Spain	7
Spain	5

United States	4
				Spain	7

				Croatia	5
FR Yugoslavia	6

Croatia	8
		Croatia	7

		Italy	6	Third place
Russia	9

Italy	11
				Hungary	18

				Italy	20

Quarterfinals

26 July 1996	Hungary	12–8	Greece	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

26 July 1996	FR Yugoslavia	6–8	Croatia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

26 July 1996	Spain	5–4	United States	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

26 July 1996	Russia	9–11	Italy	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Semifinals

5th/8th place

27 July 1996	Greece	7–6	United States	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

27 July 1996	FR Yugoslavia	15–16	Russia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

1st/4th place

27 July 1996	Croatia	7–6	Italy	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

27 July 1996	Hungary	6–7	Spain	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Finals

7th place match

28 July 1996	United States	12–8	FR Yugoslavia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

5th place match

28 July 1996	Greece	8–10	Russia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Bronze medal match

28 July 1996	Hungary	18–20	Italy	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Gold medal match

28 July 1996	Spain	7–5	Croatia	Georgia Tech Aquatic Center

Ranking and statistics

Final ranking

RANK^[1]	TEAM
	Spain
	Croatia
	Italy
4.	Hungary
5.	Russia
6.	Greece
7.	United States
8.	FR Yugoslavia
9.	Germany
10.	Netherlands
11.	Romania
12.	Ukraine

1996 Men's Olympic champions
Spain First title

Multi-time Olympians

Five-time Olympian(s): 1 player

Spain: Manuel Estiarte^[3]

Four-time Olympian(s): 3 players

Medallists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's tournament	Spain (ESP)^[1] Josep María Abarca Ángel Andreo Daniel Ballart Pedro Francisco García Salvador Gómez Manuel Estiarte Iván Moro Miguel Ángel Oca Jorge Payá Sergi Pedrerol Jesús Rollán Jordi Sans Carles Sans Head Coach: Joan Jané	Croatia (CRO) Maro Balić Perica Bukić Damir Glavan Igor Hinić Vjekoslav Kobešćak Joško Kreković Ognjen Kržić Dubravko Šimenc Siniša Školneković Ratko Štritof Renato Vrbičić Tino Vegar Zdeslav Vrdoljak Head Coach: Bruno Silić	Italy (ITA) Alberto Angelini Francesco Attolico Fabio Bencivenga Alessandro Bovo Alessandro Calcaterra Roberto Calcaterra Marco Gerini Alberto Ghibellini Luca Giustolisi Amedeo Pomilio Francesco Postiglione Carlo Silipo Leonardo Sottani Head Coach: Ratko Rudić

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "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.
^ "Water Polo at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
^ "Manuel Estiarte". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
^ "George Mavrotas". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
^ "Anastasios Papanastasiou". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
^ "Jordi Sans". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

Sources

PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:
- Official Report of the 1996 Olympic Games, v.3 (download, archive) (pp. 56–73)
Water polo on the Olympedia website
- Water polo at the 1996 Summer Olympics (men's tournament)
Water polo on the Sports Reference website
- Water polo at the 1996 Summer Games (men's tournament) (archived)

External links

"Official Olympic Report". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2008.
Results

[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 1996 Atlanta Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2019.

[Manuel_Estiarte_OP-3] "Manuel Estiarte". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

[George_Mavrotas_OP-4] "George Mavrotas". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

[Anastasios_Papanastasiou_OP-5] "Anastasios Papanastasiou". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

[Jordi_Sans_OP-6] "Jordi Sans". olympedia.org. Olympedia. Retrieved 24 January 2021.

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