The men's tournament of water polo at the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo, Japan began on 25 July and ended on 8 August 2021. It was held at the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center.[1] It was the 27th official appearance of the tournament, which was not held in 1896 and was a demonstration sport in 1904 but otherwise had been held at every Olympics.
The competition began on 25 July, and matches were held every other day. At each match time, two matches were played simultaneously (one from each group during preliminary round, two quarterfinals during that round, one main semifinal and one classification 5 to 8 semifinal during the semifinal round, and the two classification games on the final day) except for the bronze and gold medal matches.[7][8][9]
Legend
G
Group stage
¼
Quarter-finals
½
Semi-finals
B
Bronze medal match
F
Gold medal match
Sun 25
Mon 26
Tue 27
Wed 28
Thu 29
Fri 30
Sat 31
Sun 1
Mon 2
Tue 3
Wed 4
Thu 5
Fri 6
Sat 7
Sun 8
G
G
G
G
G
¼
½
B
F
Competition format
The twelve teams were seeded into two groups for a preliminary round. The teams in each group played a round-robin. The top four teams in each group advanced to the knockout round while the fifth- and sixth- placed teams were eliminated. The fifth placed teams were ranked ninth and tenth based on win–loss record, then goal average; the sixth-placed teams were ranked eleventh and twelfth in the same way. The knockout round began with quarterfinals and the winners advanced to the semifinals, while the quarterfinal losers played in the fifth- to eighth- place classification. The two semifinal winners played in the gold medal match, while the two semifinal losers played in the bronze medal match.[10]
Draw
The draw took place on 21 February 2021 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.[11][12]
Seeding
The twelve teams in the men's tournament were drawn into two groups of six teams. The teams were seeded into six pots.[12]: 20:59 [13]
^"MOLLER German". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"JOHNSON Nicola". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"DESLIERES Marie-Claude". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"ZHANG Liang". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"PERIS Nenad". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"DERVIEUX Sebastien". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"OHME Frank". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"STAVRIDIS Georgios". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"KUN Gyorgy". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"SEVERO Alessandro". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"TSUZAKI Asumi". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"SALNICHENKO Viktor". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"IVANOVSKI Stanko". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"ZWART Michiel". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"WALDOW John". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"ALEXANDRESCU Adrian". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"VOEVODIN Arkadiy". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"PUTNIKOVIC Vojin". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"CHENG Jeremy". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"WILLIS Dion". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"BUCH Xevi". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"WENGENROTH MARTINELLI Ursula". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"GOLDENBERG Michael". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"DANERS CHAO Daniel Federico". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"RAK Mladen". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"MARGOLIN Alexandr". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"SHERSHNEV Alexandr". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
^"TEIXIDO BERMUDEZ Jaume". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.