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The roster for the men’s water polo tournament at the 2020 Olympics has been decided with the results of the Men’s Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament. The top three teams of the 12-team tournament qualified to the games. The format included a round robin group stage where the top four teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The event was held in Rotterdam, Netherlands from February 14th to February 21st 2021. Group A was reduced to five teams due to Turkey having too many positive COVID-19 cases and were thus disqualified. The two favourites for this group, Greece and Montenegro were undefeated until meeting up on the fourth day of matches. Greece did get a scare on the first day of matches where a third quarter comeback by Georgia and a very defensive fourth quarter meant Greece narrowly won 11-10. In the match between the two top teams, Montenegro jumped up to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter and was able to maintain a lead on route to an 8-4 victory to top the group. Georgia finished third thanks to victories over Canada (14-11) and Brazil (12-8) while Canada also advanced to the quarterfinals as they won 11-7 over Brazil on the first day. Group B was a much more competitive group which saw two draws and six one-goal victories across the 15 matches. The largest upset occurred on the fourth day of matches where 2016 Olympic silver medalist Croatia lost to Russia 14-13. Russia was able to prevent Croatia from scoring during the fourth quarter as they successfully completed their comeback to win by a single point. This victory allowed Russia to win the group with 4 victories and a 9-9 draw against Romania. Croatia finished second while France required a final day victory over Romania (16-7) to finish third. This allowed France to finish equal on points with the Netherlands, but with a better goal differential the former finished ahead while the latter finished fourth. Romania finished fifth thanks to a 12-7 win over Germany. The quarterfinals saw the favourites secure victories. Montenegro began the day against the Netherlands by jumping up to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter on route to winning 13-7. The Greece and France matched turned out to be the most exciting match of the round. Despite starting with the lead, Greece was slowly overtaken by France who held a 12-10 lead going into the final quarter. Greece won the fourth quarter 3-1 to tie the game, forcing it to go to penalties. Greece won the shoot-out 4-1 to advance to the semi-finals. Croatia and Georgia began as a close match, but a strong second quarter by Croatia removed doubt within the match, allowing them to win 15-6. The final nation to advance to the semi-finals was Russia whose lead was never threatened as they went on to win 17-9 over Canada. In the first opportunity to qualify for the Olympics the semi-final match between Montenegro and Croatia had both nations trading leads, finishing with a goal by Montenegro’s Miroslav Perkovic to end the game 10-10 and forcing a penalty shoot-out. Montenegro won the shoot-out 4-2 to become the first nation to qualify. Joining them was Greece who played a close game with Russia, but never gave up the lead to win 13-10. The tournament was won by Montenegro who pulled off a successful fourth quarter comeback after being down 8-6 to win 10-9 over Greece. The third-place match and final Olympic quota was played between Croatia and Russia. In a repeat of Croatia’s semi-final match, Russia tied the game 11-11 with 16 seconds remaining thanks to Dmitrii Kholod. The ensuing penalty shoot-out turned into a marathon as 15 rounds were required before Croatia prevailed 14-13. All three teams are considered mainstays in the men’s water polo tournament. Montenegro continues its streak of qualifying to this event as an independent nation where it will be looking to win their first medal after three consecutive fourth place finishes. Greece will also be looking to win their first medal after finishing sixth in Rio while Croatia will be hoping to win their fourth medal in the event as an independent nation. Qualified Nations Men's Tournament Croatia Greece Montenegro

The FIG has announced the cancellation of the Artistic Gymnastics All-Around World Cup Series. Originally, four events were scheduled in 2020, but only the Milwaukee, United States event was held as the others were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with travel restrictions remaining in place it has become increasingly difficult to schedule at least two more events to validate the results. This has implications for qualification to the 2020 Olympics as the top three nations in the men’s and women’s individual rankings were expected to qualify a quota to compete. Following the reallocation procedure set by the FIG, the quotas have been reallocated to the top three nations during the team all-around qualification round at the 2019 World Championships. Thus, the quotas were awarded to China, Japan and Russia in the men’s individual events while China, Russia and the United States qualified an individual female athlete. This athlete will be allowed to compete in the individual events, but can not participate in the team event. Currently the remaining quotas are set to be decided at the apparatus World Cup Series and the continental qualifiers. Qualified Nations Men’s Artistic Individual Events China Japan Russia Women’s Artistic Individual Events China Russia United States

The women’s water polo tournament at the 2020 Olympics has been decided with the results of the Women’s Water Polo Olympic Qualification Tournament. The two finalists of the eight-team tournament qualified to the games. The format included a round robin group stage where all eight teams advanced to the quarterfinals. The event was held in Trieste, Italy from January 19th to January 24th 2021. A draw between the Netherlands and Italy (7-7) saw the two nations finished atop of Group A with five points each. With a better goal differential, it was Italy who finished first in the group. Third place was won by France who fought off a second quarter comeback by Slovakia to win the match 17-9. Group B came down to Greece and Hungary as the two nations had back-to-back victories over Israel (20-1 and 27-2 respectively) and Kazakhstan (13-5 and 23-6 respectively). In the deciding match, it was Greece which finished with an 8-5 victory. The third-place match of the group between Israel and Kazakhstan ended in a 7-7 draw and thus the latter finished ahead due to goal differential. The quarterfinals saw no upsets as the four European powerhouses dispatched their opponents. The Netherlands defeated Kazakhstan 19-6, Greece won over Slovakia 22-3, Hungary finished ahead of France 20-7 and Italy was the victor over Israel 15-6. The semifinals and the Olympic qualification deciding matches saw Greece take an early lead over the Netherlands where they held a 4-3 advantage at half-time. However, the Netherlands were able to prevent Greece from scoring again as they won the match 7-4. The second Olympic quota was won by Hungary who took a 3-1 first quarter lead over Italy and thanks to a six-goal effort by Rita Keszthelyi, won the match 13-10. The final and bragging rights was won by Hungary who defeated the Netherlands 13-11. Third place went to Greece as they won over Italy 10-4. This will be the Netherlands’ first Olympic appearance since winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. The team will be hoping to repeat that performance at the 2020 Olympics. Hungary on the other hand, will be looking to win their first Olympic medal after finishing fourth at the previous three Olympics. This completes the Olympic roster for the women’s water polo teams. The final men’s teams will be decided at their respective Olympic qualification tournament scheduled to be held in February. Qualified Nations Women's Tournament Hungary Netherlands