Water Polo at the Olympic Games: Paris 1900

Very few words have been written about the genesis and the development of the first ever water polo tournament at the Olympic Games. This sport was introduced in the 1900 edition in Paris, a part of the World’s Fair, and contested among seven teams from four different countries – Belgium, France as hosting nation, Germany and Great Britain.

by Simone Pierotti

 

The national teams were essentially composed by players belonging to just a single club. For instance, Belgium was entirely represented by the Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club, established in 1897 in the homonym city, whereas the Berliner Swimming Club competed as Germany national team and the Osborne Swimming Club from Manchester corresponded to Great Britain. Originally, a “B” team of Osborne was supposed to participate, but they eventually withdrew. France took part with four different clubs – the Libellule de Paris, two teams of the Pupilles de Neptune de Lille and the Tritons Lillois.

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Simone Pierotti è nato il 2 gennaio 1985 a Pietrasanta, ma è cresciuto a Viareggio, dove ha mosso i primi passi da giornalista e le prime bracciate da pallanotista. Ha giocato un po' in tutti i ruoli per oltre 10 anni e nel frattempo si è laureato in Comunicazione pubblica all'Università di Pisa, ha fatto da addetto stampa al Torneo di Viareggio e alla Coppa Carnevale di nuoto e collaborato per varie testate. Adesso sta frequentando un master in giornalismo sportivo alla Sheffield Hallam University, nel Regno Unito, e continua a seguire la pallanuoto. Simone Pierotti was born on 2 January 1985 in Pietrasanta, but he grew up in Viareggio, where he fell in love both with journalism and water polo. He played in almost all roles for more than 10 years and in the meantime he graduated in Communication Studies from Università di Pisa, he served as a press officer for the Viareggio Tournament and the Coppa Carnevale of swimming and he has worked as a freelance journalist for several news organisations. He is now attending a MA in Sports Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and he is going on with covering water polo.