| | Event type

Water Polo, Men

Date	15 – 29 August 2004
Status	Olympic
Location	Olympiako Kentro Ugrou Stivou, Olympiako Athletiko Kentro Athinon Spiros Loues, Athina (Main Pool)
Participants	154 from 12 countries
Format	Round-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

Hungary, traditionally the strongest water polo power, came into Athens as the clear favorite. They were the defending champions, the 2003 World Champions, the 2002 World Cup Champions, and earlier in 2004, had won the World League Superfinal, defeating Serbia & Montenegro in the final match. The two teams met again in group play, Hungary prevailing 6-4. Both teams would move into the single-elimination tournament, Hungary going undefeated in group play, and moving directly to the semi-finals.

The final saw Hungary and Serbia & Montenegro meet again. The former Yugoslavia moved out to an early 3-0 lead, but Hungary tied the match 5-5 at halftime. Serbia & Montenegro again led 7-5 at the end of three quarters, but Hungary scored the only three goals of the final period to win the gold medal, 8-7, and confirm their status as the world’s top water polo team.

But for the second consecutive Olympics, Serbia & Montenegro had the leading scorer of the Olympic tournament, this being Aleksandar Šapić, who led the goalscoring in both Sydney and Athens with 18 goals.

Pos	Competitor(s)	NOC
1	Hungary	HUN	Gold
	Tibor Benedek • Péter Biros • Rajmund Fodor • István Gergely • Tamás Kásás • Gergő Kiss • Norbert Madaras • Tamás Molnár • Ádám Steinmetz • Barnabás Steinmetz • Zoltán Szécsi • Tamás Varga • Attila Vári
2	Serbia and Montenegro	SCG	Silver
	Aleksandar Ćirić • Vladimir Gojković • Danilo Ikodinović • Viktor Jelenić • Predrag Jokić • Slobodan Nikić • Aleksandar Šapić • Dejan Savić • Denis Šefik • Petar Trbojević • Vanja Udovičić • Vlada Vujasinović
3	Russian Federation	RUS	Bronze
	Roman Balashov • Revaz Chomakhidze • Aleksandr Fedorov • Sergey Garbuzov • Dmitry Gorshkov • Nikolay Kozlov • Nikolay Maksimov • Andrey Rekechinsky • Dmitry Stratan • Aleksandr Yeryshov • Vitaly Yurchik • Marat Zakirov • Irek Zinnurov
4	Greece	GRE
	Georgios Afroudakis • Khristos Afroudakis • Nikolaos Deligiannis • Theodoros Kalakonas • Theodoros Khatzitheodorou • Konstantinos Loudis • Dimitrios Mazis • Georgios Reppas • Stefanos-Petros Santa • Anastasios Skhizas • Argyris Theodoropoulos • Ioannis Thomakos • Antonios Vlontakis
5	Germany	GER
	Steffen Dierolf • Lukasz Kieloch • Tobias Kreuzmann • Sören Mackeben • Heiko Nossek • Jens Pohlmann • Marc Politze • Thomas Schertwitis • Fabian Schroedter • Alexander Tchigir • Patrick Weissinger • Tim Wollthan • Michael Zellmer
6	Spain	ESP
	Ángel Luis Andreo • Daniel Ballart • Xavier García • Salvador Gómez • Gabriel Hernández • Gustavo Marcos • Guillermo Molina • Daniel Moro • Iván Moro • Sergio Pedrerol • Iván Pérez • Jesús Miguel Rollán • Javier Sánchez
7	United States	USA
	Omar Amr • Tony Azevedo • Ryan Bailey • Layne Beaubien • Brandon Brooks • Genai Kerr • Dan Klatt • Brett Ormsby • Jeff Powers • Chris Segesman • Jesse Smith • Wolf Wigo • Adam Wright
8	Italy	ITA
	Alberto Angelini • Fabio Bencivenga • Leonardo Binchi • Fabrizio Buonocore • Alessandro Calcaterra • Roberto Calcaterra • Maurizio Felugo • Goran Fiorentini • Marco Gerini • Francesco Postiglione • Bogdan Rath • Carlo Silipo • Stefano Tempesti
9	Australia	AUS
	Pietro Figlioli • Trent Franklin • Toby Jenkins • Sam McGregor • Craig Miller • Tim Neesham • Alex Osadchuk • Dean Semmens • James Stanton-French • Rafael Sterk • Nathan Thomas • Thomas Whalan • Gavin Woods
10	Croatia	CRO
	Samir Barać • Damir Burić • Elvis Fatović • Nikola Franković • Igor Hinić • Vjekoslav Kobešćak • Danijel Premuš • Dubravko Šimenc • Mile Smodlaka • Ratko Štritof • Frano Vićan • Goran Volarević • Tihomil Vranješ
11	Kazakhstan	KAZ
	Sergey Drozdov • Aleksandr Gaydukov • Sergey Gorovoy • Aleksandr Polukhin • Artemy Sevostyanov • Aleksandr Shidlovsky • Aleksandr Shvedov • Yury Smolovoy • Aleksandr Elke • Igor Zagoruyko • Ivan Zaytsev • Yevgeny Zhilyayev
12	Egypt	EGY
	Ragy Abdel Hady • Karim Abdel Mohsen • Mahmoud Ahmed • Ahmed Badr • Shady El-Helw • Omar El-Sammany • Mohamed Gamal-el-Din • Sherif Khalil • Bassel Mashhour • Amr Mohamed • Walid Rezk • Hassan Sultan • Ibrahim Zaher

Preliminary Round (15 – 23 August 2004)

Group A (15 – 23 August 2004)

Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitor(s)	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals For	GA
1	Hungary	HUN	5	0	0	10	44	27

2	Serbia and Montenegro	SCG	4	0	1	8	37	26

3	Russian Federation	RUS	3	0	2	6	32	28

4	United States	USA	2	0	3	4	32	37

5	Croatia	CRO	1	0	4	2	35	41

6	Kazakhstan	KAZ	0	0	5	0	21	42

Match #1	RUS	5 – 2	KAZ
Match #2	HUN	6 – 4	SCG
Match #3	USA	7 – 6	CRO
Match #4	USA	9 – 6	KAZ
Match #5	SCG	4 – 3	RUS
Match #6	HUN	10 – 8	CRO
Match #7	SCG	9 – 5	KAZ
Match #8	HUN	7 – 5	USA
Match #9	RUS	9 – 8	CRO
Match #10	HUN	14 – 4	KAZ
Match #11	SCG	11 – 8	CRO
Match #12	RUS	9 – 7	USA
Match #13	CRO	5 – 4	KAZ
Match #14	HUN	7 – 6	RUS
Match #15	SCG	9 – 4	USA

Group B (15 – 23 August 2004)

Round-robin pool.

Pos	Competitor(s)	NOC	Wins	Ties	Losses	Points	Goals For	GA
1	Greece	GRE	4	0	1	8	43	27

2	Germany	GER	3	1	1	7	40	28

3	Italy	ITA	3	0	2	6	39	24

4	Spain	ESP	3	0	2	6	35	31

5	Australia	AUS	1	1	3	3	37	35

6	Egypt	EGY	0	0	5	0	18	67

Match #1	AUS	14 – 3	EGY
Match #2	ESP	5 – 4	ITA
Match #3	GER	5 – 4	GRE
Match #4	ITA	8 – 4	AUS
Match #5	GER	13 – 3	EGY
Match #6	GRE	8 – 5	ESP
Match #7	ESP	8 – 4	AUS
Match #8	ITA	10 – 5	GER
Match #9	GRE	15 – 4	EGY
Match #10	ITA	13 – 4	EGY
Match #11	GER	11 – 5	ESP
Match #12	GRE	10 – 9	AUS
Match #13	AUS	6 – 6	GER
Match #14	ESP	12 – 4	EGY
Match #15	GRE	6 – 4	ITA

Quarter-Finals (25 August 2004)

Single-elimination.

Match #1	RUS	12 – 5	GER
Match #2	SCG	7 – 5	ESP

Semi-Finals (27 August 2004)

Single-elimination.

Match #1	HUN	7 – 5	RUS
Match #2	SCG	7 – 3	GRE

Classification Round 7-12 (25 August 2004)

Classification matches.

Match #1	AUS	10 – 5	KAZ
Match #2	CRO	12 – 1	EGY

Classification Round 7-10 (27 August 2004)

Match #1	USA	6 – 5	AUS
Match #2	ITA	11 – 7	CRO

Final Round (27 – 29 August 2004)

Medal round.

Match 1/2	HUN	8 – 7	SCG
Match 3/4	RUS	6 – 5	GRE
Match 5/6	GER	6 – 4	ESP
Match 7/8	USA	9 – 8	ITA
Match 9/10	AUS	8 – 7	CRO
Match 11/12	KAZ	15 – 7	EGY