LA28 Olympic Water Polo Qualification System Finalised

LAUSANNE – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Aquatics have finalised the Olympic qualification rules for the lads’s and ladies’s water polo tournaments on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

With slightly below 800 days remaining till the Games open, the 2 organisations have confirmed the LA28 Olympic Qualification System Principles for water polo following in depth collaboration among the many IOC Sports Department, the World Aquatics Bureau, the World Aquatics Water Polo Technical Committee, and main aquatics stakeholders. This approval follows the sooner publication of qualification system paperwork for swimming, diving, creative swimming, and open water swimming.

In a historic first, the Women’s Water Polo Tournament at LA28 will function 12 groups — matching the lads’s 12-team discipline and marking the primary time Olympic water polo has achieved full gender parity.

The 12 qualification locations for every match will probably be distributed as follows:

• As host nation, the United States of America mechanically qualifies for each tournaments.
• The highest-placed National Olympic Committee (NOC) on the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup 2027 Final will qualify for LA28.
• The high two NOCs on the World Aquatics Championships – Budapest 2027 will qualify for LA28.
• The highest-placed NOC at every of the 5 Continental Championships will qualify for LA28.
• The high three NOCs on the World Aquatics World Qualifier 2028 will qualify for LA28.

World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam welcomed the collaborative effort undertaken to ascertain a good and attainable pathway to the LA28 Olympic Games.

“Finalising the Qualification System for water polo is another milestone on the road to LA28. With an expanded number of nations competing in water polo, we have realised several guiding pillars of sports: increasing opportunities for athletes and championing equal opportunity, while also creating a clear and fair qualification pathway for all athletes. This work required careful consideration and collaboration with the IOC and the global aquatics community, and I am proud of what we have achieved.”

Serbian males’s nationwide group captain Nikola Jaksic, representing the triple reigning Olympic champions, mentioned: “It is an honour for athletes to see such commitment to fairness and equality in our sport. Expanding the number of teams creates more opportunities and new challenges, and I know every player dreams of earning their place on this stage. We are excited to defend our title at LA28 and to face the best competition from around the world.”

Spanish captain Bea Ortiz, a part of the defending girls’s water polo Olympic championship group, added: “The increase to twelve teams in the women’s tournament shows how far our sport has come. It motivates us to work even harder and inspires young players in Spain and around the world. LA28 will be a special milestone for women’s water polo. We are proud to be part of this moment.”

Water polo will probably be held on the Long Beach Aquatics Center for each the lads’s and ladies’s tournaments. Preliminary rounds are scheduled to start forward of the Games’ official opening on 14 July 2028, with the males’s competitors operating from 12 to 22 July and the girls’s from 13 to 23 July.

The session calendar for all sports was developed in collaboration with LA28 organisers and the IOC and was launched in November 2025.

The LA28 Olympic Games, scheduled from 14 to 30 July 2028, will function probably the most in depth sports activities programme in Olympic historical past, comprising 36 sports activities and 351 medal occasions — a rise from the 32 sports activities and 329 medal occasions at Paris 2024.

World Aquatics will govern 55 medal occasions throughout swimming, diving, water polo, creative swimming, and open water swimming at LA28, the biggest share of any worldwide federation on the Games and up from 49 aquatic medal occasions at Paris 2024.

Los Angeles beforehand hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984.

Water polo debuted as the primary Olympic group sport on the Paris 1900 Games. The sport options groups of seven gamers who goal to attain by throwing a ball into the opponent’s internet whereas swimming and treading water. Each group has 28 seconds per possession and will use just one hand to deal with the ball. Played over 4 eight-minute quarters, the game is fast-paced and extremely bodily demanding.

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