Water polo at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Water polo, and team sport in general, made its Olympic debut at the 1900 Summer Games held in Paris, France. The tournament was to be played by the less violent and more restrictive "English rules", which, along with the cost of traveling to Paris, deterred any American teams from participating.[2] Seven teams, representing at least four countries, took part in the competition. Four squads were based in the host nation: two from Pupilles de Neptune de Lille and one each from Libellule de Paris and Tritons Lillois. The Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club, Berliner Swimming Club, and Osborne Swimming Club were based in Belgium, Germany, and Manchester, Great Britain respectively.[3] A second squad from the Osborne Swimming Club was entered, but did not participate.[4]

John Arthur Jarvis is listed on a roster contemporary to the Games as having competed for the Osborne Swimming Club.

Fernand Feyaerts, pictured in 1916, was a member of the Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club.

Bill Burgess, pictured in 1911, was British, but competed for the French club Libellule de Paris.

Paul Vasseur, pictured in 1920, was also on the Libellule de Paris squad.

The composition of several of the teams in Paris differs across sources and not all teams were composed solely of members who were nationals of the countries in which their clubs were based. Libellule de Paris has been listed as having a player by the name of "Devenot", but Olympic historian Bill Mallon identifies this player as Jules Clévenot, who also competed in swimming events at the Games.[notes 1] Their squad also included Bill Burgess, a Briton who would later become the second man to swim across the English Channel.[5] The first Pupilles de Neptune de Lille team contained a Belgian national, Philippe Houben.[6] Three members of this squad, Favier, Leriche, and Charles Treffel, joined the second Pupilles de Neptune de Lille team after the first was eliminated from the tournament. They seem to have replaced four players, Camelin, Fiolet, Gellé, and Louis Marc, who competed for the second Pupilles de Neptune de Lille lineup only in the first round.[notes 1]

German sources do not list Hans Aniol, Max Hainle, or Herbert von Petersdorff as members of the Berliner Swimming Club, mentioning Gustav Erpf, Asmus Simonsen, and Max Schöne instead, but Mallon notes that there is proof contemporary to the tournament for the participation of only the former trio. Three members of the Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club, Georges Romas, Guillaume Séron, and A. R. Upton, are also left off of some lists despite evidence that they participated in the first round.[notes 1] The roster for the Osborne Swimming Club as listed by the International Olympic Committee is Thomas Coe, John Henry Derbyshire, Peter Kemp, William Lister, Arthur G. Robertson, Eric Robinson, and George Wilkinson. Lister, however, had died two weeks prior to the Games,[4] while Derbyshire, Robinson, and Wilkinson all played water polo matches in England either during the tournament or too soon after it to have traveled back from Paris in time. A list of players contemporary to the match does not include Robertson, but does list Coe and Kemp in addition to Robert Crawshaw, William Henry, John Arthur Jarvis, Victor Lindberg, and Frederick Stapleton.[4] Lindberg has been considered the first New Zealand Olympian,[7] although he "was born in Fiji to Swedish and Irish parents, lived in New Zealand from a young age and, in Paris, represented a British club."[4]

Full rosters

All entries are listed as per Mallon's "The 1900 Olympic Games" unless otherwise noted:[notes 2]

Place	Team	Nation	Players
1	Osborne Swimming Club[notes 3]	Great Britain	Thomas Coe Robert Crawshaw William Henry John Arthur Jarvis Peter Kemp Victor Lindberg Frederick Stapleton
2	Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club	Belgium	Jean de Backer Victor de Behr Henri Cohen Fernand Feyaerts Oscar Grégoire Albert Michant Georges Romas Guillaume Séron Victor Sonnemans A. R. Upton
3	Libellule de Paris	France	Bill Burgess Jules Clévenot / Devenot Alphonse Decuyper Louis Laufray Henri Peslier Auguste Pesloy[notes 4] Paul Vasseur
	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille #2	France	Auguste Camelin[notes 5] Eugène Coulon Fardelle Favier Antoine Fiolet[notes 6] Pierre Gellé[notes 7] Leriche Louis Marc Louis Martin Désiré Mérchez Charles Treffel
5	Berliner Swimming Club	Germany	Hans Aniol Paul Gebauer Max Hainle Georg Hax Gustav Lexau Herbert von Petersdorff Fritz Scheider
	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille #1	France	Favier Philippe Houben Leriche Georges Leuillieux Ernest Martin René Tartara Charles Treffel
	Tritons Lillois	France	Joseph Bertrand[notes 8] Victor Cadet[notes 9] Maurice Hochepied Jean Leclerq[notes 10] Léon Tisserand[notes 11] Charles Devendeville Jules Verbecke[notes 12]

The Seine, pictured in 2010, was the venue for the water polo tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

The water polo tournament was held at the river Seine,[8] with the first round taking place on 11 August. Osborne defeated Tritons Lillois in a 12–0 shutout, with Jarvis scoring at least six of the goals. Brussels also shutout the first Pupilles de Neptune de Lille squad 2–0, while the latter's second team defeated Berliner 3–2. Libellule de Paris received a bye and the losing teams were eliminated from the tournament.[3] The semi-finals took place on 12 August, with Osborne defeating the remaining Pupilles de Neptune de Lille squad 10–1 (with Martin scoring the lone goal for the French team) and Brussels winning against Libellule de Paris 5–1.[4] The final was held on the same day, with Osborne overcoming Brussels 7–2. Osborne, with the medal later credited to Great Britain,[3] became the first Olympic water polo champions and "descriptions of the matches make it appear that they won as they wished, and the margins could have been larger, had they pressed the matter".[4] Belgium has been retroactively credited with silver (medals were not handed out for many events at the 1900 Summer Olympics),[7] while the two French semi-finalists have been seen as the bronze medalists.[4]

Summary

	First round 11 August				Semi-finals 12 August				Finals 12 August
	Osborne Swimming Club (GBR)	12
	Tritons Lillois (FRA)	0
					Osborne Swimming Club	10
					Pupilles de Neptune de Lille #2	1
	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille #2 (FRA)	3
	Berliner Swimming Club (GER)	2
									Osborne Swimming Club	7
									Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club	2
	Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club (BEL)	2
	Pupilles de Neptune de Lille #1 (FRA)	0
					Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club	5
					Libellule de Paris	1
	Libellule de Paris (FRA)
	Bye

• PDF documents in the LA84 Foundation Digital Library:
  • Official Report of the 1900 Olympic Games (download, archive)
• Water polo on the Olympedia website
  • Water polo at the 1900 Summer Olympics (men's tournament)
• Water polo on the Sports Reference website
  • Water polo at the 1900 Summer Games (men's tournament) (archived)