Blood in the Water
During NBC’s coverage of the Olympics tonight, they paid tribute to the moments during The Games when warring nations’ athletes have come together in peaceful competition. The host reminded us that the “Blood in the Water” polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics—not a month since the end of the deadly Hungarian Revolution of 1956—was anything but friendly:
From the beginning, the match was very physical with kicks and punches being exchanged. At one point the Hungarian captain, Dezs? Gyarmati, caught a Russian opponent with a sucker punch that was caught on film. Meanwhile, the young Hungarian player Zádor scored two goals to the ‘Hajrá Magyarok!’ (Go Hungarians!) cheers of the crowd.
Going into the final minutes of the game, when Hungary was leading 4–0, Zádor was marking Valentin Prokopov, with whom he had several verbal exchanges, abusing his family, etc. At one point when Zádor looked away, Prokopov hit him with a powerful fist, causing a deep bleeding gash above the right eye. Zádor was forced to leave the pool, and his bleeding face was the final straw for a crowd which was already in a frenzy. Many angry spectators jumped on to the concourse beside the water, shook their fists, shouted abuse and spat at the Russians[3]. To avoid a riot breaking out, police entered the arena with one minute to go and shepherded the crowd away.
Hungary beat the USSR 4–0 in that match and eventually beat Yugoslavia to secure their fourth gold medal in 5 Olympics. Hungary medaled each of the 12 Olympics from 1928–1980, did not place at all from 1980–1996, and have recently reconstructed a dynasty, with gold-medals in the past two Games.
I would like to see a map plotting the medals earned in water polo at the Summer Olympics over time, to really illustrate the eastward creep of the sport’s center-mass of talent.
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