Spanish water polo defender Felipe Perrone has competed in five Olympics. He gives away all his memorabilia but he keeps his memories close. Perrone shares a few from each one of his Olympics, dating back to 2008.
No one has tied Manuel Estiarte’s record number of Olympic water polo appearances (at six), but his countryman Felipe Perrone is close. Now, the Brazilian-born Perrone is in Paris competing in his fifth Games, hoping to make his first podium at age 38. After helping Spain defeat Australia, 9-5, in group play on Sunday, he reflected on each. A match against Hungary awaits, with play getting underway on Tuesday night.
In Beijing 2008, Perrone made his Olympic debut at age 22, having helped Spain capture the 2007 world championship bronze in Melbourne. What Perrone remembers most from China, he said, was “coming to the stadium in the Opening Ceremony with my brother [and Olympic teammate, Kiko]. Getting inside the stadium, feeling the crowd, and ‘we are the Olympics’ was an amazing feeling.” It was the only Olympics he and his older brother would play together, as Spain finished fifth.
Perrone entered London 2012 with a 2009 world championship silver, and it was a much different experience.
“I think London was more pressure because we were really willing to win a medal and maybe not enjoying too much, maybe trying to be too focused,” he said. “The moment the Olympics were in Europe, more people were following the games. The crowd was at every game so we were more nervous. In Beijing my first Olympics, it’s like, ‘everything is great!’ The second one is more, ‘Let’s try to medal.’ We couldn’t. We lost [11-9] in the quarterfinals against Montenegro.” Spain finished sixth.
In Rio 2016, Perrone played for Brazil, his birthplace as well as his parents’.
“It was a whole different style of play,” he said. “And the people in Brazil – the audience was really emotional at the games. I had the feeling that I was representing much more than water polo team in that tournament. I can remember hearing the [Brazil] national anthem and everyone was singing and it was very-very special.” Brazil finished eighth, however, Perrone’s lowest finish.
For Tokyo 2020, Perrone returned to represent Spain, where he has dual citizenship and had lived since he was 15. Like all athletes who change nationalities, however, Perrone had to undergo a waiting period before he could compete for Spain again.
“It was like a year or something,” Perrone recalled – and it worked out because the Tokyo Games were postponed a year due to COVID. When the Games finally opened, in the summer of 2021, the global pandemic was still a presence. Fans were prohibited from attending, and all participants had to undergo daily Covid testing and keep their distance from each other outside the field of play.
Because of the pandemic, Perrone said, “We couldn’t really enjoy the Olympic Games and how it [usually] is, but we were really happy to be there because we were not sure if the Olympic Games would be played or not. And I was 34. I was 100% sure it was my last [Olympics].” Spain dominated group play, beating all five teams in its group (including the eventual gold medalist, Serbia), but when it faced Serbia again in the semifinals, Spain lost, 10-9, and subsequently lost the bronze-medal match to Hungary, 9-5. Nonetheless, Spain’s fourth-place finish was Perrone’s best Olympic placement to date.
Which brings us to Paris 2024.
“Look, I’m here!” he said, explaining, “I think I was going really year-by-year [since Tokyo]. I was enjoying the game and I completely changed my lifestyle. I was taking much more care of myself because it is not easy to follow these [young] guys. They are amazing players. I changed everything, my diet, sleeping more, [only drinking] alcohol on just a few-few-few occasions.
“Most of the team were in the Opening Ceremony [on Friday night]. It was beautiful, it was amazing, but I wasn’t there because I knew that I need to rest. I’m 38 years old. I cannot. If I was like them, 25, I would for sure be there, but with my age, I really need to take care. I cannot make any mistakes. It took many things to come here. That’s why I’m so happy to be here.”
The last time Spain was on the men’s water polo podium was in 1996, in Atlanta, and Paris might be its best shot in a while. Spain enters these Olympics as the 2022 men’s world champion and back-to-back bronze medalist in 2023 and 2024.
It is thus fitting that what Perrone says that what he hopes to remember from 2024 Paris is: “the medal. Why not? It’s probably the last [try] and all my family are coming,” he said, including his 14-year-old daughter, Giovanna, and 7-year-old son, Nikola.
“We will try our best for the gold,” he said. “We did all the preparations, focused on little-little details, and are totally focused. But it’s sport. I already had experienced for many years [that] you never know what’s gonna happen but at least we’re preparing the best we can.”