History of water polo (3) : Olympic participation

Abstract

The gradual improvement in water polo in Malta is made evident in the decision to send a local national water polo side to participate, for the first time, in the Olympics taking place in Amsterdam in 1928. This momentuous step in Maltese water polo opens a period which was to run from here, up to 1936, when Malta once more sent a national water polo side to take part in the Olympics held in Berlin at the height of the growth of Hitler's Nazi Germany. During this period we shall also see the appearance of "Turu" Rizzo in his open-sea endurance records, the rise of the Neptunes as a potent factor in local water polo, the contribution to water polo by the autonomous Malta Sports Association, and the visit to Tunis by St. Julians and the return visit to Malta by the Tunisian side, the Sirence Tritons.