Water polo factbox for Athens 2004

ATHENS, July 8 (Reuters) -- Factbox on water polo at the August 13-29 Athens Olympics:

HISTORY

Water polo players originally sat on floating barrels resembling horses and handled the ball with paddles similar to the mallet used in classic polo, but today's water polo has little to do with the horseback version.

The London Swimming Association drew up the first rules of water polo in 1870, allowing the sinking of opponents, holding the ball underwater and scoring with the use of both hands, all of which are now banned.

Like classic polo, which was invented by British troops in the Eastern Indies, water polo was popular in the Commonwealth. Britain won six Olympic gold medals in a row in the sport, from 1900, when men's water polo first featured at the Olympic games, to 1920.

Women's water polo, played in the Netherlands from the start of the 20th century, was included in the Olympic Games for the first time in Sydney in 2000.

EVENTS

12-team event for men

Eight-team event for women

2000 CHAMPIONS

Men: Hungary (Tibor Benedek, Peter Biros, Rajmund Fodor,

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Tamas Kasas, Gergely Kiss, Zoltan Kosz, Tamas

Marcz, Tamas Molnar, Barnabas Steinmetz,

Zoltan Szecsi, Bulcsu Szekely, Zsolt Varga,

Attila Vari)

Women: Australia (Naomi Castle, Joanne Fox, Bridgette

Gusterson, Simone Hankin, Yvette Higgins,

Kate Hooper, Bronwyn Mayer, Gail Miller,

Melissa Mills, Debbie Watson, Liz Weekes,

Danielle Woodhouse, Taryn Woods)

OLYMPIC PROGRAMME

August 15: Men's preliminaries

August 16: Women's preliminaries

August 17: Men's preliminaries

August 18: Women's preliminaries

August 19: Men's preliminaries

August 20: Women's preliminaries

August 21: Men's preliminaries

August 22: Women's quarter-finals

August 23: Men's preliminaries

August 24: Women's semi-finals

August 25: Men's quarter-finals

August 26: Women's bronze-medal game

Women's final

August 27: Men's semi-finals

August 29: Men's bronze-medal game

Men's final

COMPETING TEAMS

Men

Group A: Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, United States,

Hungary, Kazakhstan

Group B: Germany, Egypt, Italy, Spain, Australia, Greece

Women

Group A: Greece, Australia, Italy, Kazakhstan

Group B: Russia, U.S. Hungary, Canada

VENUE

Olympic Aquatics Centre (indoor pool), at the Athens Olympic

Sports Complex in Maroussi. The pool has seats for 5,757 spectators.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

www.fina.org

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.