| | Event type

Water Polo, Men

Date	18 – 27 July 1976
Status	Olympic
Location	Piscine olympique, Montréal, Québec / Centre Claude-Robillard, Montréal, Québec
Participants	131 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to the round-robin final pool.

Since World War II the top water polo nations had been Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, and the Soviet Union. In 1973 FINA instituted the World Aquatics Championship, which gave more idea of who the strongest teams were coming into the Olympic year. But those only showed that little had changed in the water polo world. In 1973 Hungary was World Champion, with the Soviets winning silver, and Yugoslavia bronze, while in 1975 the Soviets won the title, followed by Hungary and Italy. At the 1974 European Championships, the medalists finished in the same order as in 1973 at the Worlds – Hungary, USSR, Yugoslavia.

But in a shocker at Montréal, the Soviet Union did not advance to the medal round, placing only third in Group B, trailing the Netherlands and Romania. The Soviet officials were so upset that they withdrew their team from the consolation pool, forfeiting the first match against Cuba, officially stating that several of their players were sick, but the Olympic water polo officials then convinced them to play on. They did but placed second behind Cuba in the consolations, or eighth overall, the forfeited loss to Cuba being the margin between the two teams.

In Group A Italy and Yugoslavia advanced, while Hungary and West Germany made it out of Group C. The final pool saw Hungary win its sixth Olympic water polo gold medal (1932, 1936, 1952, 1956, 1964, 1976). They won their first four matches in the finals, although every game was close, as they won by scores of 6-5, 5-3, 5-3, 9-8, and then faced their archrival, Yugoslavia, who had not won a game in the final round. The two teams tied, 5-5, which gave Hungary the gold and placed Yugoslavia fifth, without a final round victory. Italy and the Netherlands tied the final match of the tournament, 3-3, which left them tied in the pool, with 2 wins, 2 ties, and 1 loss each. They were also tied on goal differential, but Italy was awarded the silver medal because they had scored more goals in the medal round, 22-18.

Hungary also had the leading goalscorer of the tournament, with Tamás Faragó, who scored 22 times. István Szivós, Jr. was also on the Hungarian team, winning his third consecutive Olympic medal, after bronze in 1968 and silver in 1972. He would return in 1980 and win a fourth medal, a bronze.

Pos	Number	Team	NOC	GP	Goals	Attempts	Shot %	Penalty Shot Goals/Attempts	Exclusions	Penalty Fouls	Exclusion (w/wo Sub)
1	–	Hungary	HUN	8	45	111	40.5%	10/12	30	6	0	Gold
	1	Endre Molnár		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	István Szívós, Jr.		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Tamás Faragó		8	22	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	László Sárosi		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	György Horkai		8	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Gábor Csapó		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Attila Sudár		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	György Kenéz		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	György Gerendás		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Ferenc Konrád		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Tibor Cservenyák		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Dezső Gyarmati
2	–	Italy	ITA	8	47	117	40.2%	12/14	37	9	3	Silver
	1	Alberto Alberani Samaritani		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1	Gianni De Magistris		8	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Roldano Simeoni		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Silvio Baracchini		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Sante Marsili		8	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Marcello Del Duca		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Alessandro Ghibellini		8	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Luigi Castagnola		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Riccardo De Magistris		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Enzo D'Angelo		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Umberto Panerai		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Gianni Lonzi
3	–	Netherlands	NED	8	32	97	33.0%	6/8	21	6	0	Bronze
	1	Evert Kroon		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Nico Landeweerd		8	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Jan Evert Veer		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Hans van Zeeland		8	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Ton Buunk		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Piet de Zwarte		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Hans Smits		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Rik Toonen		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Gijze Stroboer		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Andy Hoepelman		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Alex Boegschoten DNS		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Ivo Trumbić
4	–	Romania	ROU	8	44	112	39.3%	7/9	37	12	1
	1	Florin Slăvei		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Cornel Rusu		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Gheorghe Zamfirescu		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Adrian Nastasiu		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Dinu Popescu		8	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Claudiu Rusu		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Ilie Slăvei		8	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Liviu Răducanu		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Viorel Rus		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Adrian Schervan		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Doru Spînu		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Anatol Grințescu
5	–	Yugoslavia	YUG	8	46	113	40.7%	8/10	38	11	0
	1	Miloš Marković		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Ozren Bonačić		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Uroš Marović		8	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Predrag Manojlović		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Ðuro Savinović		8	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Damir Polić		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Siniša Belamarić		8	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Dušan Antunović		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Dejan Dabović		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Boško Lozica		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Zoran Kačić		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Milan Muškatirović
6	–	West Germany	FRG	8	24	108	22.2%	1/4	31	5	1
	1	Günter Kilian		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Ludger Weeke		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Hans Simon		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Günter Wolf		8	5	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Jürgen Stiefel		8	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Roland Freund		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Wolfgang Mechler		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Martin Jellinghaus		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Werner Obschernikat		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Horst Kilian		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Peter Röhle		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Nicolae Firoiu
7	–	Cuba	CUB	8	51	135	37.8%	4/5	28	7	0
	1	Óscar Periche		7	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Osvaldo García		7	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Ramón Peña		7	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Lázaro Costa		7	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	David Rodríguez		7	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Nelson Domínguez		7	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Jorge Rizo		7	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Eugenio Almenteros		7	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Jesús Pérez		7	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Gerardo Rodríguez		7	10	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Oriel Domínguez		7	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Károly Laky
8	–	Soviet Union	URS	7	47	105	44.8%	6/7	23	4	0
	1	Anatoly Klebanov		7	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Sergey Kotenko		7	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Aleksandr Dreval		7	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Aleksandr Dolgushin		7	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Vitaly Romanchuk		7	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Aleksandr Kabanov		7	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Aleksey Barkalov		6	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Nikolay Melnikov		7	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Nuzgari Mshvenieradze		7	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Vladimer Iselidze		7	7	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Aleksandr Zakharov		6	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Anatoly Blyumental
9	–	Canada	CAN	8	35	104	33.7%	4/6	25	9	0
	1	Guy Leclerc		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Gabor Csepregi		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	David Hart		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Paul Pottier		8	12	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Gaétan Turcotte		8	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Clifford Barry		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Jim Ducharme		8	5	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Rick Pugliese		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	George Gross		8	8	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	John MacLeod		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Dominique Dion		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Dezső Lemhényi
10	–	Mexico	MEX	8	36	107	33.6%	6/9	29	8	0
	1	Daniel Gómez		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Francisco García		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Javier Guerra		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Maximiliano Aguilar		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Arturo Valencia		8	11	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Juan Manuel García		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Armando Fernández		8	16	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Victorino Beristain		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Jorge Coste		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Juan Yáñez		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Alfred Schmidt		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Kálmán Markovits
11	–	Australia	AUS	8	36	98	36.7%	6/9	30	6	0
	1	Paul Williams		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	David Neesham		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Ian Mills		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Peter Montgomery		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Eddie Brooks		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Andrew Kerr		8	6	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Ross Langdon		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Charles Turner		8	15	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	David Woods		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Randall Goff		8	5	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Rodney Woods		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Tom Hoad
12	–	Iran	IRI	8	12	85	14.1%	1/4	39	14	1
	1	Firouz Abdul Mohammadian		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	2	Jahangir Tavakoli		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	3	Haydar Shonjani		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	4	Ahmed Paidayesh		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	5	Darioush Mohammadi		8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–
	6	Bahram Tavakoli		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	7	Kamran Firouzpour		8	3	–	–	–	–	–	–
	8	Manouchehr Parchami-Araghi		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
	9	Hussain Nassim		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	10	Abdul Reza Majdpour		8	2	–	–	–	–	–	–
	11	Ahmed Yaghoti		8	0	–	–	–	–	–	–
Coach		Mansour Garoussi

Preliminary Round

Date	18 – 20 July 1976

Group A

Date	18 – 20 July 1976
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals
1	Italy	ITA	2	1	0	5	26-13

2	Yugoslavia	YUG	1	2	0	4	25-10

3	Cuba	CUB	1	1	1	3	22-15

4	Iran	IRI	0	0	3	0	4-39

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	18 Jul 11:50	Italy	ITA	12 – 1	Iran	IRI
Match #2	18 Jul 21:15	Cuba	CUB	4 – 4	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match #3	19 Jul 10:30	Italy	ITA	8 – 6	Cuba	CUB
Match #4	19 Jul 16:00	Yugoslavia	YUG	15 – 0	Iran	IRI
Match #5	20 Jul 9:30	Cuba	CUB	12 – 3	Iran	IRI
Match #6	20 Jul 14:30	Italy	ITA	6 – 6	Yugoslavia	YUG

Group B

Date	18 – 20 July 1976
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals
1	Netherlands	NED	3	0	0	6	14-10

2	Romania	ROU	1	1	1	3	18-14

3	Soviet Union	URS	1	1	1	3	14-12

4	Mexico	MEX	0	0	3	0	10-20

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	18 Jul 10:30	Romania	ROU	5 – 5	Soviet Union	URS
Match #2	18 Jul 15:30	Netherlands	NED	5 – 3	Mexico	MEX
Match #3	19 Jul 9:30	Romania	ROU	8 – 3	Mexico	MEX
Match #4	19 Jul 15:00	Netherlands	NED	3 – 2	Soviet Union	URS
Match #5	20 Jul 10:30	Soviet Union	URS	7 – 4	Mexico	MEX
Match #6	20 Jul 15:30	Netherlands	NED	6 – 5	Romania	ROU

Group C

Date	18 – 20 July 1976
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals
1	Hungary	HUN	3	0	0	6	15-8

2	West Germany	FRG	2	0	1	4	9-7

3	Canada	CAN	1	0	2	2	8-14

4	Australia	AUS	0	0	3	0	14-17

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	18 Jul 9:30	Hungary	HUN	7 – 6	Australia	AUS
Match #2	18 Jul 15:35	West Germany	FRG	5 – 0	Canada	CAN
Match #3	19 Jul 11:30	Hungary	HUN	4 – 2	Canada	CAN
Match #4	19 Jul 17:00	West Germany	FRG	4 – 3	Australia	AUS
Match #5	20 Jul 11:30	Canada	CAN	6 – 5	Australia	AUS
Match #6	20 Jul 16:30	Hungary	HUN	4 – 0	West Germany	FRG

Classification Round 7-12

Date	22 – 27 July 1976
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals
1	Cuba	CUB	4	1	0	9	34-16

2	Soviet Union	URS	3	1	1	7	33-16

3	Canada	CAN	2	2	1	6	27-21

4	Mexico	MEX	1	3	1	5	26-19

5	Australia	AUS	1	1	3	3	22-25

6	Iran	IRI	0	0	5	0	8-53

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul 9:30	Cuba	CUB				walkover
Match #2	22 Jul 14:30	Canada	CAN	4 – 3	Australia	AUS
Match #3	22 Jul 15:30	Mexico	MEX	11 – 3	Iran	IRI
Match #4	23 Jul 9:30	Cuba	CUB	7 – 5	Canada	CAN
Match #5	23 Jul 10:30	Soviet Union	URS	4 – 3	Mexico	MEX
Match #6	23 Jul 19:00	Australia	AUS	8 – 2	Iran	IRI
Match #7	24 Jul 9:30	Canada	CAN	8 – 1	Iran	IRI
Match #8	24 Jul 10:30	Cuba	CUB	4 – 4	Mexico	MEX
Match #9	24 Jul 15:00	Soviet Union	URS	7 – 2	Australia	AUS
Match #10	26 Jul 9:30	Canada	CAN	6 – 6	Soviet Union	URS
Match #11	26 Jul 10:30	Cuba	CUB	10 – 2	Iran	IRI
Match #12	26 Jul 15:00	Australia	AUS	4 – 4	Mexico	MEX
Match #13	27 Jul 9:30	Soviet Union	URS	16 – 0	Iran	IRI
Match #14	27 Jul 10:30	Cuba	CUB	8 – 5	Australia	AUS
Match #15	27 Jul 15:00	Canada	CAN	4 – 4	Mexico	MEX

Final Round

Date	22 – 27 July 1976
Format	Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitors	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals
1	Hungary	HUN	4	1	0	9	30-24

=2	Italy	ITA	2	2	1	6	21-20

=2	Netherlands	NED	2	2	1	6	18-17

4	Romania	ROU	1	3	1	5	26-25

5	Yugoslavia	YUG	0	3	2	3	21-24

6	West Germany	FRG	0	1	4	1	15-21

Match	Date/Time	Competitors	NOC	Result	Competitors	NOC
Match #1	22 Jul 10:30	Hungary	HUN	6 – 5	Italy	ITA
Match #2	22 Jul 11:30	Yugoslavia	YUG	5 – 5	Romania	ROU
Match #3	22 Jul 16:30	Netherlands	NED	3 – 2	West Germany	FRG
Match #4	23 Jul 11:30	Italy	ITA	5 – 4	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match #5	23 Jul 20:00	Netherlands	NED	4 – 4	Romania	ROU
Match #6	23 Jul 21:00	Hungary	HUN	5 – 3	West Germany	FRG
Match #7	24 Jul 11:30	West Germany	FRG	4 – 4	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match #8	24 Jul 16:00	Hungary	HUN	5 – 3	Netherlands	NED
Match #9	24 Jul 17:00	Italy	ITA	4 – 4	Romania	ROU
Match #10	26 Jul 11:30	Hungary	HUN	9 – 8	Romania	ROU
Match #11	26 Jul 16:00	Italy	ITA	4 – 3	West Germany	FRG
Match #12	26 Jul 17:00	Netherlands	NED	5 – 3	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match #13	27 Jul 11:30	Hungary	HUN	5 – 5	Yugoslavia	YUG
Match #14	27 Jul 16:00	Romania	ROU	5 – 3	West Germany	FRG
Match #15	27 Jul 17:00	Italy	ITA	3 – 3	Netherlands	NED