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By Root 503 0

a similar kind of game may have been played in rivers in Africa, and in flooded rice paddies in China, many centuries before. While water polo claimed to resemble rugby, in practice it was more akin to underwater wrestling, with players hitting and ducking each other underwater with great regularity. Players would protect the ball by sticking it in their swimsuit and swimming underwater toward the goal. A much-loved but extremely dangerous water polo feat had one player jumping off the backs of teammates, and flying through the air, ball in hand, toward the opposing goal.

Good thing the more civilized “Scottish” rules replaced the former free-for-all. The new rules instituted fouls for pushing and hitting, declared that the ball had to stay above water (no more bathing-suit tricks!), and stated that only a player holding the ball can be tackled (thus lowering the number of players who ended the game in the emergency room).

HOW TO PLAY

* * *

A water polo team has six field swimmers and a goalie. Teammates pass the ball and keep it from the other side, until one of them can lob it into the goal and score. To move forward in water polo you swim with your head out of water, since you’ll need to see where the ball is. To backstroke, you sit in the water, use your arms to make small short strokes, and use the eggbeater kick to stay up and moving: as you sit in the water, bend your knees, and circle each leg toward the other, like an eggbeater.

Rules:

♦ You can touch the ball with your hands—though with only one hand at a time, which means you’ll catch the ball and pass it quickly.

♦ Don’t touch the bottom of the pool. This sport is about constant motion, no rest, and never touching bottom.

♦ No pushing, pulling, hitting, or holding on to the other players—that’s a foul. Fouls also are called if you hold the ball under water, touch it with two hands, or hold onto it longer than 35 seconds; or if you touch bottom, push off the side of the pool, or use bad language.

While Marco Polo will never be an Olympic sport, water polo is. Male Olympians have played water polo since 1900. Ever since the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, women’s water polo has been on the roster, too, and there’s a terrific story behind its entry. After a decade or two of polite behind-the-scenes negotiation with the International Olympic Committee, the Australian women’s national water polo team pushed the issue. The upcoming Olympics were on their turf, after all, and they wanted to compete. In 1998, members of the Olympic leadership were set to arrive at the Sydney airport, in town for a planning visit. Led by their goalkeeper Liz Weekes—she’s called the team’s “glamour girl” because she’s also a model—the Aussie women water polo players put on their swimsuits and caps and strode through the Sydney airport to meet them, and, very much in the public eye, they asked again to be included, and met with success.

Better yet, after fighting so hard to be included, the Australian women’s team won the gold medal, with player Yvette Higgins scoring the winning goal during the last second of the championship game, to the applause of fans who filled the stadium.

A Short History of Women Olympic Firsts

1000 BC

Ancient Greece

Women, barred from competing in the all-male Olympics, instead have their own athletic games of Hera every four years from about 1000 BC. Prizes are pomegranates, olive wreaths, and a slice of a sacrificial cow. (By contrast, the prizes for the men’s Ancient Olympic chariot races are women.)

440 BC

Ancient Greece

Kallipateria is the first female Olympic boxing coach.

392 BC

Ancient Greece

Kynisca, a Spartan princess, becomes the first female Olympic champion when her horses and chariot compete and win in the Ancient Olympic Games. She will go on to become the first woman champion horse trainer.

1896

Summer Games: Athens, Greece

The first modern Olympics. Women are not allowed to compete, but a Greek woman, Stamati Revithi, unofficially runs the marathon; refused entry to the stadium, she finishes her final lap