Water Polo at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Both the men’s and the women‘s water polo tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center in Barra da Tijuca and at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. Twenty teams (twelve for men and eight for women) competed. As in the previous Olympic Games, there were two groups with six each for men amd four in each women’s group. The best eight teams determined the medal winners in knock-out matches. For the first time at the Olympics, elimination round matches which ended in ties were decided by shootouts and not during an overtime. The defending Olympic champion USA won the women’s gold, while for the first time Serbia won the gold medal for the men.