Are we falling or flying …

Last night I fell asleep with the tv on, and so woke up this morning to the sound of an Olympic commentator excitedly calling out the play-by-play moves in the water polo match between “Team USA!” and Serbia.

Cautiously, I opened my eyes and looked at the tv screen and could see men wearing swim caps sometimes treading water, or sometimes swimming.  The one with the ball usually stood on the bottom of the pool as he coldly calculated his next move.

A second commentator chimes in “Go Team USA!”  Then more swimming. 

I jumped up, grabbed my morning dose of caffeine from the refrigerator (yes, as a matter of fact, everything does taste better with Diet Coke); fed the dogs, then trudged back to the tv for more water polo.

Water polo?  When did water polo become an Olympic sport?

Now - don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the dedication and hard work required to excel at any sport, water polo included.  Plus, I think anyone willing to live a big percentage of their life in a big pool of chlorinated water gets extra points - chlorine gives me a headache, and in any case, given a choice between walking on a beach or shriveling in a pool of chlorinated water, I’ll take the beach walk every time.

I grabbed one of my laptops and search wikipedia for the history of water polo and was surprised to learn water polo became an Olympic sport 108 years ago, and originated in Scotland and Great Britain; countries known for stiff upper lips and very cold lochs and lakes. 

And yet - detailed in the wikipedia article on water polo is the 1956 Olympic “Blood in the Water” match:

The most famous water polo match in history is probably the 1956 Summer Olympics semi-final match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. As the athletes left for the games, the Hungarian revolution began, and the Soviet army crushed the uprising. Many of the Hungarian athletes vowed never to return home, and felt their only means of fighting back was by victory in the pool. The confrontation was the most bloody and violent water polo game in history, in which the pool reputedly turned red from blood. The Hungarians defeated the Soviets 4-0 before the game was called off in the final minute to prevent angry Hungarians in the crowd reacting to Valentin Prokopov punching Ervin Zador’s eye open. The Hungarians went on to win the Olympic gold medal by defeating Yugoslavia 2-1 in the final. Half of the Hungarian Olympic delegation defected after the games. A documentary by Lucy Liu, Freedom’s Fury, premiered in April 2006, recounting the events of the 1956 Hungarian uprising and climaxing with this politicized game.

Wow.  There may be more to water polo than I first realized.

Team USA won the match. Suddenly the Olympics coverage switched to … Olympic Ping Pong.

I turned the tv off. 

If I start practicing now, maybe I could compete in the Olympics, too; that is, if the US actually has a curling team…?

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”

- Vince Lombardi