[Previous edition: Helsinki 1952] [Following edition: Rome 1960]

After more than half-a-century, the Olympic Games were staged for the first time outside Europe and America, as well as in November-December, for they were hosted in the Southern Emisphere. In fact, the organisation of the 1956 edition of the event was given to Melbourne, Australia. The International Olympic Committee gathered in Rome just one year after the London Games and Melbourne won the bid over Buenos Aires and other six American cities for just one vote. This edition turned out to be a troubled one even before it began. Main concerns arose regarding the schedule, as athletes were accustomed to compete during summer. Furthermore, the equestrian competition took place in Stockholm in June, as equine quarantine was about to be introduced in Australia. This made the 1956 Games the only one with competitions held in two different countries.

The organisation had also to face shortage of funds as well as serious political issues. Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon announced their boycott in response to the Suez Crisis when Egypt was invaded by Israel, the United Kingdom, and France. Two weeks before the opening ceremony another boycott was announced, as the People’s Republic of China had been allowed to participate behind the name “Formosa”.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution, the uprising against Communism by the Magyars, was harshly put down by the Soviets, and their presence at the Games led the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland not to take part. This event eventually affected the water polo tournament as well, which featured the alleged most famous match which involved sports and politics.

The number of participating national teams significantly dropped from the previous edition. Whereas in Helsinki a record number of 21 teams entered the competition, in Melbourne the gold medal was contested among only 10 participants, including Singapore who were at their debut in water polo. In addition, athletes from East and West Germany participated representing just one country for the first time and this custom lasted until Mexico City 1968.

The postwar period definitely introduced a new hierarchy in this sport. Also due to the absence of the likes of Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, Eastern Europe emerged as the new land of water polo, with Hungary and Yugoslavia being the main favourites and the Soviet Union becoming more competitive. The Yugoslavs and the Soviets were the leading teams of the only four-team group of the preliminary round, completed by another nation from beyond the Curtain, Romania, and hosting Australia.

Photo www.filolog.com

On their part, the Magyars comfortably topped Group B, as they scored six goals in both matches against Great Britain, now an evil twin of the glorious team of the first two decades of the century, and the United States. In the last case the American goals were scored by brothers Sam and William Kooistra, who would contribute to win the gold medal at the Pan American Games three years later. The Americans also listed Canada-originated Hungary players landed in Darwin and discovered on television about the Soviet repression of the uprising in Budapest. The atmosphere was hugely tense. The Magyars decided to lower the Hungarian flag with hammer and sickle in the Olympic Village, which was illegal, and replaced it with that showing the Kossuth Shield. This was the same waved by the insurgents in the streets of Budapest. In order to compensate for they could not train in a swimming pool for one month, the players adopt the zonal marking, a groundbreaking strategy for the time.

The only one alternative to the East European hegemony was Italy, back from the gold medal at London 1948 and from the bronze at Helsinki 1952. The Settebello qualified for the final round as the leading team of Group C, in which they overcame Singapore and Germany. Cesare Rubini was meant to compete in his last Olympic Games, while another prominent name was Federico “Fritz” Dennerlein. Born in Naples of German father and Romanian mother, he also succeded as a swimmer. He died in a car accident in 1992 and the stretch of water between Marina di Vico and Capo La Gala was renamed in his honour yesterday (Sunday 15 July 2012), as he used to train here.

The German side included Achim Schneider, son of silver medal winner Hans-Joachim at Berlin 1936, and Wilfried Bode, husband of swimmer Elisabeth Rechlin. In addition, the sons of respectively Alfred Obschernikat and Friedhelm Osselmann, husband of swimmer Birgit Klomp, would win the bronze medal in the water polo tournament at Seoul 1988. Singapore featured brothers Skip and Wiebe Wolters, both born in the Netherlands, brother Tan Eng Bock and Liang – the latter appeared as non-playing reserve – and Eric Yeo, winner of several titles in swmming at the Asian Games and future vice-president for water polo inside the Singapore Swimming Association.

The interest of Australian sports fan was focused on the consolation round, composed by the hosting team, Great Britain, Romania and Singapore. If the Commonwealth derby with the Britons sounded tempting, the eyes of the world were doubtless on the gold medal group and not just for the curiosity to know the name of the winning team. Similarly to Helsinki, the final round was a terrific example of sports and politics, with teams represting countries who had signed the Warsaw Treaty facing the United States and Italy, who were members of the NATO. Germany national team particularly epitomised this dualism, as its delegations featured athletes from both halves of the country.

Photo www.waterpololegends.com

In the first match day of the final round, the Soviets overwhelmed Italy 3-1 whereas Yugoslavia beat the United States 5-1. Both teams were candidating themselves as main antagonists of Hungary, who impressively gave a 4-0 loss to Germany and Italy. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union were opposed to the Americans for the first time in the Cold War and the former won 3-1. The goals were scored by the two Georgian players of the squad, Nodar Gvakharia and skipper P’etr’e Mshvenieradze (pictured left). Born in Tbilisi, Mshvenieradze captained the Soviet national team from 1951 to 1962 and played for Dynamo Moscow for 15 years, from 1948 to 1963. As Yugoslavia drawed 2-2 against Germany, the gold medal was still achievable for the Soviets, who had herited a 3-2 defeat from the group stage. The clash with Hungary, scheduled on 6 December, was supposed to be decisive. In the end, it went down into history as the most violent game of water polo.

The match, refereed by Swedish Sam Zuckerman, was attended by many Hungarians, the most of whom had migrated to Australia. They started to support their fellow countrymen by singing “Hajrá Magyarok!” (“Come on, Hungarians!”). Hungary challenged the Soviet Union one month after the tragic end of the Revolution, with tanks and warplanes from Moscow invading Budapest. The team coached by Béla Rajki were aware to play not just for the gold medal, but also, and perhaps mainly, for their people. As Mshvenieradze was sent off in the beginning, the Magyars took the control of the situation and the first half ended with the goals scored by Dezső Gyarmati and György Kárpáti.

The match turned to be definitely harsher in the second half, marked by bad conduct on both sides. Once more, Hungary scored twice, courtesy of Antal Bolvári and Ervin Zádor. The latter eventually replaced the former in the dying minutes, as he was hit at the ear by Valentin Prokopov. Few minutes were still needed to play when Zádor began to insult his opponent. As he was forced to learn Russian at school like many other Hungarians, he told Prokopov that he was a loser and belonged to a family of losers. Distracted by a whistle, Zádor turned his head on the opposite side and he lost sight of the Soviet. Prokopov suddenly emerged from the water and violently punched him, proviking a wound at the eyebrow.

Photo Moving Picture Institute

Zádor immediately came out of the pool and the snapshot of his blooding face was published on newspapers in all over the world (picture right). Meanwhile, the crowd roared, many Hungarian fans attempted to invade the edge of the pool and started to spit in Soviets’ faces. The match was abandoned, the 4-0 was confirmed as the final score and the headline of an Australian paper read “Blood in the pool match”, which is still the name used to refer to that encounter. On the following day, the Hungarians sealed their second consecutive medal thanks to a tight win over the Yugoslavians, who were awarded the silver again. Zádor did not play as he was injured and showed up himself onto the podium in plain clothes. He started to cry, for his people and for his country.

As he promised to his team-mates when they watched television at their arrival for the Games, he did not return to his homecountry. Instead, he went to live in the United States, where he coached young Mark Spitz and died last April. Similarly to him, team-mate György Kárpáti defected after the Olympics. Furthermore, Yugoslavian star Ivo Štakula took part ot the 1956 Games and decided never to be back in his homeland because of Communism. He prematurely died in 1958 in Melbourne, just two years after the city itself had hosted the Olympics.

The “Blood in the Pool” episode inspired two different film adaptions, both released in 2006 for the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. The first is “Freedom’s Fury”, presented at the Tribeca Film Festival. This is a 90-minute documentary produced by famous Hollywood actress Lucy Liu and director Quentin Tarantino and narrated by Mark Spitz himself.

A second film, of Hungarian production, was released in the same year. Directed by Krisztina Goda, it is called “Children of Glory” (“Szabadság szerelem” in the original version, a reference to the poetry of 1848 Revolution hero Sándor Petőfi). The plot’s hinge is a fictional love story between a player of Hungary water polo national team and one student, who belongs to the group of rebels, in the Budapest of the 1956 Revolution. Real poloists and Olympic gold medal winners were part of the cast; Hungarian goalkeeper Zoltán Szécsi plays as a driver in the Hungarian side, while Péter Biros, Slovakia-originated goalkeeper István Gergely, Balász Hárai and Gergely Kiss star as Soviet players.

Fixtures

Preliminary round

Group A – 28 November

Romania 4-2 Australia – Şimon, Szabo, ?; Pierce, Bennett

Yugoslavia 3-2 Soviet Union – ?; Mshvenieradze, ?

29 November

Soviet Union 4-3 Romania – Mshvenieradze 3, Kurennoj; Zahan, Şimon, Nagy

Yugoslavia 9-1 Australia – ?

30 November

Yugoslavia 3-2 Romania – ?; Szabo, Nagy

Soviet Union 3-0 Australia – Mshvenieradze, Breus, Kurennoj

Group C – 28 November

Germany 5-1 Singapore – ?

29 November

Italy 7-1 Singapore - ?

30 November

Italy 4-2 Germany – ?

Consolation round

6 December

Australia 3-2 Singapore – ?

7 December

Great Britain 5-2 Australia - ?

Romania 15-1 Singapore – Zahan 4, Bădiță 3, Szabo 2, Șimon 2, Nagy 2; ?

?

Great Britain 5-2 Romania – ?; Șimon, Zahan

Great Britain 11-5 Singapore - ?

Romania 4-2 Australia – ?

Standings

Great Britain 6 pts, Romania 4, Australia 2, Singapore 0.

Final round

1 December

Soviet Union 3-2 Italy – Breus, Mshvenieradze, Markarov; ?

Yugoslavia 5-1 United States - ?

3 December

United States 4-3 Germany – ?

Hungary 4-0 Italy – ?

4 December

Yugoslavia 2-2 Germany – ?

Italy 3-2 United States – ?

5 December

Soviet Union 3-1 United States – Mshvenieradze 2, Gvakharia; ?

Hungary 4-0 Germany – Gyarmati 2, Markovits, Kárpáti

6 December

Hungary 4-0 Soviet Union (2-0 HT) – Gyarmati, Kárpáti, Zádor, Bolvári

Yugoslavia 2-1 Italy – ?

7 December

Soviet Union 6-4 Germany – Gvakharia 3, Mshvenieradze 2, Kurennoj; ?

Hungary 2-1 Yugoslavia – Mayer, Kárpáti; ?

Squads

Hungary: Dezső Gyarmati, György Kárpáti, Ottó Boros, István Hevesi, Kálmán Markovits, Antal Bolvári, Mihály Mayer, László Jeney, István Szivós senior, Tivadar Kanizsa, Ervin Zádor.

Yugoslavia: Zdravko-Ćiro Kovačić, Lovro Radonjić, Vladimir Ivković, Zdravko Ježić, Ivo Cipci, Hrvoje Kačić, Marijan Žužej, Tomislav Franjković.

Soviet Union: Boris Gojchman, Viktor Agejev, Jurij Šljapin, Vjačeslav Kurennoy, Pëtr Breus, P’et’re Mshvenieradze, Nodar Gvakharia, Michail Ryžak, Valentin Prokopov, Boris Markarov.

Italy: Enzo Cavazzoni, Cesare Rubini, Angelo Marciani, Paolo Pucci, Fritz Dennerlein, Giuseppe D’Altrui, Alfonso Buonocore, Cosimo Antonelli, Luigi Mannelli, Maurizio D’Achille.

United States: Robert Horn, William Ross, Robert Frojen, Wally Wolf, Ronald Severa, James Gaughran, William Kooistra, Kenneth Hahn, Robert Hughes, Sam Kooistra.

Germany: Karl Neuse, Alfred Obschernikat, Wilfried Bode, Achim Schneider, Willi Sturm, Hans-Günther Hilker, Friedhelm Osselmann, Emil Bildstein, Erich Pennekamp, Hans Werner Seher.

Great Britain: Arthur Grady, Gerry Worsell, Jack Jones, Peter Pass, Ron Turner, Terry Miller, Cliff Spooner, Jack Fergusson, Bob Knights.

Romania: Alexandru Marinescu, Zoltan Hospodar, Aurel Zahan, Gavril Nagy, Francisc Şimon, Ivan Bordi, Alexandru Szabo, Alexandru Bădiţă, Iosif Deutsch.

Australia: Douglas Laing, Raymond Smee, Keith Whitehead, Peter Bennett, Bill Orchard, John Foster, Ted Pierce, John O’Brien, William McCabe.

Singapore: David Lim, Thio Gim Hock, Lionel Chee, Eric Yeo, Gan Eng Teck, Wiebe Wolters, Tan Eng Bock, Skip Wolters, Oh Chwee Hock, Lim Teck Pan.

Sources

Sports Reference

Benzoni, Damiano. “Con l’orgoglio, la rabbia, le lacrime e il sangue”, Sport Vintage, 30 September 2009.

Pierotti, Simone. “Il bagno di sangue di Melbourne”, Storie (stra)ordinarie di sport, 3 December 2009.

Tags: 1956, 2006, Achim Schneider, Alfred Obschernikat, Antal Bolvári, Australia, Balász Hárai, Birgit Klomp, Blood in the Pool match, Budapest, CCCP, Cesare Rubini, Children of Glory, China, Darwin, Desző Gyarmati, documentary, Egypt, equestrian, Eric Yeo, Ervin Zádor, Federico Dennerlein, Formosa, Freedom's Fury, Friedhelm Osselmann, Fritz Dennerlein, Georgia, Gergely Kiss, György Kárpáti, Hans-Joachim Schneider, Hungarian Revolution, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, István Gergely, Ivo Štakula, Krisztina Goda, Lebanon, Lucy Liu, Mark Spitz, Melbourne, NATO, netherlands, Nodar Gvakharia, Olympic Games, Olympics, Ottó Boros, P'etr'e Mshvenieradze, Péter Biros, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Kooistra, Sam Zuckerman, Sándor Petőfi, Skip Wolters, Soviet Union, Spain, Suez Crisis, sweden, Szabadság szerelem, Tan Eng Liang, Tang Eng Bock, Tribeca Film Festival, USSR, Valentin Prokopov, Warsaw Pact, Warsaw Treaty, Water Polo, William Kooistra, William Ross, yugoslavia, Zoltán Szecsi, zonal marking, Валентин Иванович Прокопов, ნოდარ გვახარია, პეტრე მშვენიერაძე