Water Polo at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Water polo was contested in 1988 at the Indoor Swimming Pool, at the Olympic Park, or in transliterated Korean, the Su-yeong-jang, Ol-lim-pik Gong-won. This was also the site of the swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, and the swimming section of the modern pentathlon in 1988. This was common at the Olympics, but in 1984, water polo had been contested at a separate site.

There were 12 teams entered in 1988 with two preliminary round-robin pools of six teams each. The top two teams in each pool advanced to a four-team single-elimination medal tournament, with semi-finals and finals. The third and fourth teams in each preliminary pool contested a round-robin classification round for places 5-8, while the fifth and sixth teams in each preliminary pool also contested a round-robin classification round, this for places 9-12.