Water polo is notoriously rough and sometimes players get a little feisty. What is it like to be on the receiving end and how do players break free? We asked eight Olympians in Paris.
Every day, water polo players deal with combative elements of the game. Female Olympians from Canada, Australia, Greece, and Italy explained their coping strategies.
Alexandra Asimaki (Greece # 7) - center forward, age 36, 2011 world champion
“I’m a center forward, the middle attacker, the one who receives more punches. My first Olympics was in 2008 so after all these years, I know how to handle. You have to keep your mind clear – not let the feelings go to the front. Stay concentrated on the plan of the team. This is how you [become] an important player for your team. Don’t lose your mind, Don’t play with feelings. Play by the book, by the system, and follow your own in the game.
“As for grabbing – the rule says: you have to get free with movement. Sometimes the referees are allowing the grabbing and holding. But the key, I think, is to try to release yourself by swimming, by making pivot.
“I don’t have the biggest body so when an opponent is big and strong, okay, sometimes you can face a difficult time. But not many times I find myself in difficult times. I feel strong.”
Tilly Kearns (Australia # 11) – center forward, age 23
“When you start out, it’s just like: hold on to whatever you can to stay afloat. But as you get to a higher level, holding and grabbing is very much tactical – to create space and advantages for you or your players. It’s a very important part of the game.
“Since you’re technically not allowed to hold, if you show the ref that the other player is holding you-- by lifting yourself up in the water or swimming and showing the ref that you’re trying to get out of it – then it should be a turnover. Of course, the refs sometimes miss it so whatever you can do to get out of it is really important. It’s the difference between a goal or not a goal. There was an instance today [against Canada in, Group A] when two players did a pick to create an advantage and I tried to fight my way out of it but I got caught behind one of them because she had a really good hold on me and she got the ball and scored. The ball just flew over my head. It’s easy to get frustrated at the player doing it to you or at the ref that’s not seeing it. But play on. You can’t let it distract you.”
Elle Armit (Australia # 3) - center back, age 32, 2019 world championship bronze medalist
“If they’re holding your arms, we try to find the weak points. We practice this a lot in warm up, just to get used to it before we get into our games. The most frustrating hold? They’re all frustrating, to be honest. Probably as a center back – when they hold the cossies, the togs.”
Agnese Cocchiere and Giuditta Galardi (Italy #11 and # 3) center forwards, age 25 and 29, 2023 world championship bronze medalists
“We use the double shoulder… the momentum of the shoulder to break free. Because we are both center forward, we use a very strong movement. Or, if the defender is stronger, we try to let the referee see that you are being held. Myself [Galardi], I don’t like to use the suit. It’s more easy if you [grab] the swimsuit’ it’s easier to take control. But if I don’t grab, the play is more clean. I prefer don’t grab.”
Serena Browne (Canada # 10) - center back, age 20
“The hardest part of the game is people jumping on you, throwing themselves on each other. As a center defender, they grab me a lot. Our team does a bit of judo and taekwondo, learning to release out of grips. [Judo players] have to get out of grips as well, so it translates in the water. So when someone’s grabbing on us, we have specific ways to protect ourselves and not get exclusions. If they grab my waist and they’re holding me, I spin the opposite way because physiologically [their joint can’t go back any further]. They eventually have to let go.”
Kindred Paul (Canada # 11) - center back, age 28
“A lot of it is anticipating what your opponent is going to do and counteracting that with your movements. There’s not really a way to get a player off of you, but you’ve got to be able to take that and still be able to do a move with it. Sometimes you can [go underwater and hide], but sometimes if you stay up and you show the referee that they’re grabbing your suit or you let out a yell to show that, ‘Hey! I’m working hard here,’ they’ll give you the call.”
Maria Patra (Greece # 8) - center back, age 25
“I’m a defender, so I see a lot of grabbing. Because my father [Vangelis, a three-time water polo Olympian for Greece] does Aikido, he has shown me some moves I can use in the water to get free. You use the strength of the other person for your advantage. If someone is using their arms to hold you, use your whole upper body – make a turn or something – to get free because arms are not as strong as your whole upper body. When there is no way to escape, then you have to decide at that moment what is the best solution for you. Maybe you have to make an exclusion you don’t receive a goal. Other than that – you deal with it. It’s part of the game. We’re used to it.”