1956 Summer Olympics / Water polo

At the XVI. 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was a beach ball held tournament. The venue was the swimming stadium in the Olympic Park. The Melbourne blood game between Hungary and the Soviet Union went down as the most brutal game in water polo history.

Medalist

space	country	player
1	HUN	Antal Bolvári , Ottó Boros , Dezső Gyarmati , István Hevesi , László Jeney , Tivadar Kanizsa , György Kárpáti , Kálmán Markovits , Mihály Mayer , István Szívós , Ervin Zádor
2	YUG	Juraj Amšel , Ivo Cipci , Tomislav Franjković , Vladimir Ivković , Zdravko Ježić , Hrvoje Kačić , Zdravko Kovačić , Lovro Radonić , Ivo Štakula , Boško Vuksanović , Marjan Žužej
3	URS	Viktor Ageev , Pyotr Breus , Boris Goichman , Vyacheslav Kurennoi , Nodar Gwacharija , Boris Markarow , Pyotr Mzhwenieradze , Valentin Prokopov , Mikhail Ryschak , Yuri Schljapin

competition

A total of ten teams competed, which were divided into three groups in the preliminary round. The two best teams in each group went to the final round, in which they competed against all teams against which they had not yet played in the preliminary round. The results from the preliminary round were carried over to the final round. The other teams contested a consolation round for places 7 to 10.

Preliminary round

Group A

space	team	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Yugoslavia	3	0	0	15: 05	+ 10	6th
2.	Soviet Union	2	0	1	09: 06	+ 3	4th
3.	Romania	1	0	2	09: 09	0	2
4th	Australia	0	0	3	03:16	- 13	0

November 28th	14:00	Romania	Australia	4: 2 (2: 1)
	7:30 p.m.	Yugoslavia	Soviet Union	3: 2 (2: 1)
November 29th	21:15	Soviet Union	Romania	4: 3 (2: 1)
	22:15	Yugoslavia	Australia	9: 1
30th of November	10:30	Yugoslavia	Romania	3: 2 (2: 2)
	16:00	Soviet Union	Australia	3-0

Group B

space	team	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Hungary	2	0	0	12: 03	+ 9	4th
2.	United States	1	0	1	07: 09	- 2nd	2
3.	United Kingdom	0	0	2	04:11	- 7th	0

November 28th	20:30	United States	Great Britain	5: 3 (3: 3)
November 29th	15:45	Hungary	Great Britain	6: 1 (4: 0)
30th of November	11:30	Hungary	United States	6: 2 (6: 2)

Group C

space	team	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Italy	2	0	0	11: 03	+ 8	4th
2.	Germany	1	0	1	07: 05	+ 2	2
3.	Singapore	0	0	2	02:12	- 10	0

November 28th	15:00	Germany	Singapore	5: 1 (2: 0)
November 29th	16:45	Italy	Singapore	7: 1 (3: 1)
30th of November	22:10	Italy	Germany	4: 2 (1: 1)

Final round

The game between Hungary and the Soviet Union went down under the name Blood Game of Melbourne as the most brutal game in water polo history. Immediately before the athletes arrived, the Hungarian uprising was crushed by the Soviet army. Some of the Hungarian athletes did not want to return to Hungary. Before the game, the Hungarians were one point ahead of Yugoslavia and two points ahead of the Soviet Union. A victory would have left the Soviet team a good chance of winning the Olympic Games, for the Hungarians a victory meant a safe silver medal and a real final against the Yugoslav team.

The game was so bloody that red traces could be seen in the pool. With the score of 4-0 for the Hungarians, the game was abandoned one minute before the end after exiled Hungary protested violently in the audience against an action by Valentin Prokopov , who had inflicted a gash on the face of the Hungarian Ervin Zádor . In the last game the Hungarians beat Yugoslavia 2-1.

1st to 6th place

space	team	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Hungary	5	0	0	20: 03	+ 17	10
2.	Yugoslavia	3	1	1	13: 08	+ 5	7th
3.	Soviet Union	3	0	2	14:14	0	6th
4th	Italy	2	0	3	10:13	- 3	4th
5.	United States	1	0	4th	10:20	- 10	2
6th	Germany	0	1	4th	11:20	- 9	1

December 1	14:40	Italy	Soviet Union	2: 3 (2: 3)
	22:40	Yugoslavia	United States	5: 1 (3: 0)
3rd of December	16:50	United States	Germany	4: 3
	21:30	Hungary	Italy	4: 0 (3: 0)
December 4th	15:40	Yugoslavia	Germany	2: 2
	21:00	United States	Italy	2: 3
December 5th	16:40	Soviet Union	United States	3: 1
	22:20	Hungary	Germany	4: 0 (2: 0)
6th of December	15:25	Soviet Union	Hungary	0: 4 (0: 2)
	21:55	Yugoslavia	Italy	2: 1
December 7th	14:00	Soviet Union	Germany	6: 4 (3: 3)
	21:20	Yugoslavia	Hungary	1: 2 (0: 2)

7th to 10th place

space	team	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Gates	Diff.	Points
07th	United Kingdom	3	0	0	21: 09	+ 12	6th
08th.	Romania	2	0	1	21: 08	+ 13	4th
09.	Australia	1	0	2	07:11	- 4th	2
10.	Singapore	0	0	3	08:29	- 21	0

Great Britain	Singapore	11: 5
Great Britain	Australia	5: 2
Romania	Singapore	15: 1
Great Britain	Romania	5: 2
Australia	Singapore	3: 2
Romania	Australia	4: 2

Remarks

The Hungarian team of coach Béla Rajki went to the United States after the Olympic Games. Dezső Gyarmati, István Hevesi, Antal Bolvári, László Jeney, Ervin Zádor and Mihály Mayer did not return to Hungary with the rest of the team. Except for Ervin Zádor, however, no player stayed permanently in the United States.

The German team was represented by players from the Federal Republic of Germany and consisted of Hans-Werner Seher, Karl Neuse, Erich Pennekamp, ​​Alfred Obschernikat, Wilhelm Sturm, Hans-Günther Hilker, Hans-Joachim Schneider, Friedrich Osselmann, Wilfried Bode , Emil Bildstein. The squad of the German Swimming Association prevailed in April and May in an all-German elimination in six qualifying games in Alversdorf and East Berlin against the selection of the GDR.

source

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 , pp. 410-411.