| Date | 25 July – 8 August 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan | |
| Participants | 156 from 12 countries | |
| Format | Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches. | |
There was no clear favorite in the men’s tournament. The 2019 world champion was Italy, while Hungary had won the 2020 European Championship, but only by a penalty shoot-out over Spain. The defending gold medallist was Serbia, winner of the 2019 World League, who was also highly considered.
Spain dominated the group stage with 5 wins, whereas the other group was more balanced as Greece secured the first place there. Serbia was only third with two losses against Spain and Croatia. The two group winners won their quarter-final matches by wide margins. However, Serbia took Spain by surprise in the semi-final and claimed the gold medal as well with a final victory over Greece, which secured its first ever Olympic men’s water polo medal. Hungary took the bronze medal, defeating Spain.
| Date | 25 July – 2 August 2021 |
|---|
| Date | 25 July – 2 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Round-robin pool. |
| Pos | Team | NOC | Wins | Ties | Losses | Points | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greece | GRE | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 68-34 | ||
| 2 | Italy | ITA | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 60-32 | ||
| 3 | Hungary | HUN | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 64-35 | ||
| 4 | United States | USA | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 59-53 | ||
| 5 | Japan | JPN | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 65-66 | ||
| 6 | South Africa | RSA | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 20-116 |
| Match | Date/Time | Team | NOC | Result | Team | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 25 Jul 10:00 | Italy | ITA | 21 – 2 | South Africa 1 | RSA | |
| Match #2 | 25 Jul 11:30 | Greece | GRE | 10 – 9 | Hungary 2 | HUN | |
| Match #3 | 25 Jul 14:00 | United States 3 | USA | 15 – 13 | Japan 4 | JPN | |
| Match #4 | 27 Jul 10:00 | United States | USA | 20 – 3 | South Africa 5 | RSA | |
| Match #5 | 27 Jul 15:30 | Italy 6 | ITA | 6 – 6 | Greece 7 | GRE | |
| Match #6 | 27 Jul 18:20 | Hungary 8 | HUN | 16 – 11 | Japan 9 | JPN | |
| Match #7 | 29 Jul 10:00 | Hungary | HUN | 23 – 1 | South Africa 10 | RSA | |
| Match #8 | 29 Jul 14:00 | Italy 11 | ITA | 12 – 11 | United States 12 | USA | |
| Match #9 | 29 Jul 18:20 | Greece 13 | GRE | 10 – 9 | Japan | JPN | |
| Match #10 | 31 Jul 14:00 | Hungary 14 | HUN | 11 – 8 | United States 15 | USA | |
| Match #11 | 31 Jul 18:20 | Italy | ITA | 16 – 8 | Japan | JPN | |
| Match #12 | 31 Jul 19:50 | Greece | GRE | 28 – 5 | South Africa 16 | RSA | |
| Match #13 | 02 Aug 10:00 | Hungary 17 | HUN | 5 – 5 | Italy 18 | ITA | |
| Match #14 | 02 Aug 11:30 | Greece 19 | GRE | 14 – 5 | United States 20 | USA | |
| Match #15 | 02 Aug 18:20 | Japan | JPN | 24 – 9 | South Africa 21 | RSA |
| Date | 25 July – 2 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Round-robin pool. |
| Pos | Team | NOC | Wins | Ties | Losses | Points | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain | ESP | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 61-31 | ||
| 2 | Croatia | CRO | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 62-36 | ||
| 3 | Serbia | SRB | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 70-36 | ||
| 4 | Montenegro | MNE | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 54-56 | ||
| 5 | Australia | AUS | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 49-60 | ||
| 6 | Kazakhstan | KAZ | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 35-92 |
| Match | Date/Time | Team | NOC | Result | Team | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 25 Jul 15:30 | Montenegro 22 | MNE | 15 – 10 | Australia | AUS | |
| Match #2 | 25 Jul 18:20 | Spain 23 | ESP | 13 – 12 | Serbia 24 | SRB | |
| Match #3 | 25 Jul 19:50 | Croatia 25 | CRO | 23 – 7 | Kazakhstan 26 | KAZ | |
| Match #4 | 27 Jul 11:30 | Spain 27 | ESP | 8 – 6 | Montenegro | MNE | |
| Match #5 | 27 Jul 14:00 | Serbia | SRB | 19 – 5 | Kazakhstan 28 | KAZ | |
| Match #6 | 27 Jul 19:50 | Australia 29 | AUS | 11 – 8 | Croatia | CRO | |
| Match #7 | 29 Jul 11:30 | Spain 30 | ESP | 16 – 4 | Kazakhstan 31 | KAZ | |
| Match #8 | 29 Jul 15:30 | Croatia | CRO | 13 – 8 | Montenegro 32 | MNE | |
| Match #9 | 29 Jul 19:50 | Serbia | SRB | 14 – 8 | Australia 33 | AUS | |
| Match #10 | 31 Jul 10:00 | Montenegro 34 | MNE | 19 – 12 | Kazakhstan 35 | KAZ | |
| Match #11 | 31 Jul 11:30 | Spain 36 | ESP | 16 – 5 | Australia 37 | AUS | |
| Match #12 | 31 Jul 15:30 | Croatia | CRO | 14 – 12 | Serbia | SRB | |
| Match #13 | 02 Aug 14:00 | Serbia | SRB | 13 – 6 | Montenegro 38 | MNE | |
| Match #14 | 02 Aug 15:30 | Spain 39 | ESP | 8 – 4 | Croatia | CRO | |
| Match #15 | 02 Aug 19:50 | Australia | AUS | 15 – 7 | Kazakhstan 40 | KAZ |
| Date | 4 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners of each match advanced to semi-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 04 Aug 14:00 | Spain | ESP | 12 – 8 | United States 41 | USA | |
| Match #2 | 04 Aug 15:30 | Greece 42 | GRE | 10 – 4 | Montenegro 43 | MNE | |
| Match #3 | 04 Aug 18:20 | Serbia | SRB | 10 – 6 | Italy | ITA | |
| Match #4 | 04 Aug 19:50 | Hungary 44 | HUN | 15 – 11 | Croatia | CRO |
| Date | 6 – 8 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Classification matches. |
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 06 Aug 18:20 | Croatia 45 | CRO | 12 – 10 | Montenegro | MNE | |
| Match #2 | 08 Aug 9:30 | United States 46 | USA | 7 – 6 | Italy 47 | ITA |
| Date | 6 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winners of each match advanced to finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 06 Aug 15:30 | Greece 48 | GRE | 9 – 6 | Hungary | HUN | |
| Match #2 | 06 Aug 19:50 | Serbia | SRB | 10 – 9 | Spain 49 | ESP |
| Date | 6 – 8 August 2021 |
|---|---|
| Format | Classification round. |
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 1/2 | 08 Aug 16:30 | Serbia 50 | SRB | 13 – 10 | Greece 51 | GRE | |
| Match 3/4 | 08 Aug 13:40 | Hungary 52 | HUN | 9 – 5 | Spain | ESP | |
| Match 5/6 | 08 Aug 11:00 | Croatia 53 | CRO | 14 – 11 | United States 54 | USA | |
| Match 7/8 | 06 Aug 14:00 | Italy 55 | ITA | 14 – 14 | Montenegro | MNE |