Sport played in a swimming pool by teams of seven with a buoyant ball resembling a football (soccer ball).
The ball may be carried or thrown, and a point is scored when the ball is placed in the opposing team's goal. The name derives from a mid-19th-century version of the sport in which players rode barrels and struck the ball with sticks. A rough and demanding game, it is played by both men and women. Modern water polo was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1900.