# Water polo at the 1984 Summer Olympics

The water polo tournament at the 1984 Summer Olympics was held from 1 to 10 August 1984, at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, California. The tournament featured 12 teams, playing two rounds of round-robin play: preliminaries and finals.
Water polo was one of the four aquatic sports held at the 1984 Games, along with swimming, diving, and synchronized swimming, which was held for the first time.

## Qualification

| Qualification | Date | Host | Berths | Qualified |
| Host nation | 18 May 1978 | Athens | 1 | United States |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | Soviet Union |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | Hungary |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | West Germany |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | Netherlands |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | Cuba |
| 1982 World Championships | 30 July–7 August 1982 | Guayaquil | 6 3 | Yugoslavia |
| Intercontinental qualification | 13–22 April 1984 | | 5 | Italy  Spain  Australia  Greece  China |
| Wildcards | | | 3 | Canada |
| Wildcards | | | 3 | Japan |
| Wildcards | | | 3 | Brazil |
| Total | | | 12 | |

## Teams

12 teams played in the 1984 Olympic tournament:
The top 8 teams qualified for the 1985 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup in Duisburg, West Germany.

## Tournament play

The tournament was set up into 2 levels of round-robin play: preliminary play in 3 groups; and final play in 2 groups. The top 2 teams from each preliminary group (shaded ones) advanced to Group D and played for the top-6 places; the bottom 2 teams from each preliminary group played in Group E to determine places 7-12.

### Preliminary round
#### Group A

* Qualified for second group stage
| Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| Yugoslavia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 16 | +18 | 6 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 26 | –1 | 4 |
| China | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 27 | –6 | 2 |
| Canada | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 29 | −11 | 0 |
* 1 August
| Yugoslavia | 13 – 4 | Canada |
| China | 8 – 10 | Netherlands |
* 2 August
| Yugoslavia | 12 – 7 | China |
| Netherlands | 10 – 9 | Canada |
* 3 August
| China | 6 – 5 | Canada |
| Yugoslavia | 9 – 5 | Netherlands |

#### Group B

* Qualified for second group stage
| Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| United States | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 17 | +15 | 6 |
| Spain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 39 | 31 | +8 | 4 |
| Greece | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 23 | 33 | –10 | 1 |
| Brazil | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 38 | −13 | 1 |
* 1 August
| Spain | 19 – 12 | Brazil |
| United States | 12 – 5 | Greece |
* 2 August
| Spain | 12 – 9 | Greece |
| United States | 10 – 4 | Brazil |
* 3 August
| Greece | 9 – 9 | Brazil |
| Spain | 8 – 10 | United States |

#### Group C

* Qualified for second group stage
| Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| West Germany | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 18 | +17 | 6 |
| Australia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 29 | 20 | +9 | 3 |
| Italy | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 27 | 23 | +4 | 3 |
| Japan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 45 | −30 | 0 |
* 1 August
| Italy | 15 – 5 | Japan |
| West Germany | 10 – 6 | Australia |
* 2 August
| Australia | 8 – 8 | Italy |
| West Germany | 15 – 8 | Japan |
* 3 August
| Japan | 2 – 15 | Australia |
| West Germany | 10 – 4 | Italy |

### Final round
#### Group D

| | Team | Points | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | Diff |
| 1. | Yugoslavia | 9 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 47 | 33 | +14 |
| 2. | United States | 9 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 43 | 34 | +9 |
| 3. | West Germany | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 49 | 34 | +15 |
| 4. | Spain | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 42 | 46 | –4 |
| 5. | Australia | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 37 | 48 | –11 |
| 6. | Netherlands | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 25 | 48 | –23 |
* 6 August
| Australia | 6 – 9 | Yugoslavia |
| United States | 8 – 7 | Netherlands |
| Spain | 8 – 8 | West Germany |
* 7 August
| United States | 12 – 7 | Australia |
| Yugoslavia | 10 – 9 | West Germany |
| Spain | 8 – 4 | Netherlands |
* 9 August
| United States | 8 – 7 | West Germany |
| Netherlands | 7 – 8 | Australia |
| Spain | 8 – 14 | Yugoslavia |
* 10 August
| West Germany | 15 – 2 | Netherlands |
| Australia | 10 – 10 | Spain |
| United States | 5 – 5 | Yugoslavia |

#### Group E

| | Team | Points | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | Diff |
| 7. | Italy | 9 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 63 | 34 | +29 |
| 8. | Greece | 8 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 52 | 41 | +11 |
| 9. | China | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 44 | 39 | +5 |
| 10. | Canada | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 40 | 48 | –8 |
| 11. | Japan | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 30 | 55 | –25 |
| 12. | Brazil | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 40 | 52 | –12 |
* 6 August
| China | 10 – 4 | Japan |
| Greece | 11 – 8 | Canada |
| Italy | 13 – 4 | Brazil |
* 7 August
| Greece | 14 – 7 | Japan |
| Italy | 11 – 8 | China |
| Canada | 10 – 10 | Brazil |
* 9 August
| China | 11 – 9 | Brazil |
| Canada | 8 – 5 | Japan |
| Greece | 8 – 8 | Italy |
* 10 August
| Japan | 9 – 8 | Brazil |
| Italy | 16 – 9 | Canada |
| Greece | 10 – 9 | China |

## Final ranking

| | Yugoslavia |
| | United States |
| | West Germany |
| 4 | Spain |
| 5 | Australia |
| 6 | Netherlands |
| 7 | Italy |
| 8 | Greece |
| 9 | China |
| 10 | Canada |
| 11 | Japan |
| 12 | Brazil |

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Yugoslavia (YUG)Milorad Krivokapić Deni Lušić Zoran Petrović Božo Vuletić Veselin Đuho Zoran Roje Milivoj Bebić Perica Bukić Goran Sukno Tomislav Paškvalin Igor Milanović Dragan Andrić Andrija Popović Head coach: Ratko Rudić | United States (USA)Craig Wilson Kevin Robertson Gary Figueroa Peter Campbell Doug Burke Joseph Vargas Jon Svendsen John Siman Andrew McDonald Terry Schroeder Jody Campbell Timothy Shaw Chris Dorst Head coach: Monte Nitzkowski | West Germany (FRG)Peter Röhle Thomas Loebb Frank Otto Rainer Hoppe Armando Fernández Thomas Huber Jürgen Schroder Rainer Osselmann Hagen Stamm Roland Freund Dirk Theismann Santiago Chalmovsky Werner Obschernikat Head coach: Nico Firoiu |

### Top goalscorers

| Rank | Player | Goals |
| 1 | Manuel Estiarte (ESP) | 34 |
| 2 | Mario Fiorillo (ITA) | 19 |
| 3 | Frank Otto (FRG) | 18 |
| 4 | Charles Turner (AUS) | 17 |
| 5 | Milivoj Bebić (YUG) | 16 |
| 5 | Hagen Stamm (FRG) | 16 |
| 5 | Wang Xiaotian (CHN) | 16 |
| 8 | Mario Souto (BRA) | 15 |
| 8 | Eric Tebbe Borges (BRA) | 15 |
| 8 | Christopher Wybrow (AUS) | 15 |
| 8 | Sotirios Stathakis (GRE) | 15 |
| 12 | Terry Schroeder (USA) | 14 |