Olympic polo, 1900 to 1936.

The five tournaments

Olympedia, the Olympic history database, records polo at five Games: 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924 and 1936. Every tournament was for men. Polo has not been on the programme since 1936, not even as a demonstration sport. The table gives the medallists as Olympedia records them.

Paris 1900: which tournament counts?

The first Olympic polo is also the hardest to pin down. Olympedia warns that several polo tournaments ran at the same Paris site at almost the same time, so it is hard to say which one was the Olympic event. It identifies the Grand Prix International d'Exposition, which began on 28 May, as the closest match, and notes that other sources give conflicting team lists. It was a single-elimination tournament.

Teams were formed by club rather than by nation, so the line-ups were mixed. As Olympedia records them:

• Gold, Foxhunters Hurlingham: John Beresford, Denis Daly, Toby Rawlinson, Foxhall Keene and Frank Mackey. Olympedia notes the side included two Americans and one Irish player.
• Silver, BLO Polo Club, Rugby: Walter Buckmaster, Jean Comte de Madre, Freddie Freake and Walter McCreery.
• Bronze, shared: Polo Club de Paris, and a mixed North American team of three Escandón brothers from Mexico with William Wright of the United States.

Walter Buckmaster went on to win a second silver in 1908 with Hurlingham, according to Olympedia's 1900 results and Wikipedia.

London 1908

The 1908 tournament was played at Hurlingham in Fulham, London, with only three teams, all British or Irish. Roehampton took gold. Olympedia lists both Hurlingham and the Irish team as silver medallists, and no bronze was awarded.

Antwerp 1920, at Ostend

The 1920 Games were based in Antwerp, but the polo was played at the Wellington racecourse in Ostend. Four nations took part: Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and the United States. Great Britain beat Belgium and then Spain, 13-11, in the final. The United States took bronze.

Paris 1924

In 1924 the five nations played a round robin at the Saint-Cloud Country Club and Bagatelle. Olympedia notes these were the first Olympic matches between Argentina and the United States, and that Argentina's 6-5 win over the Americans decided the top two places. Argentina took gold, the United States silver and Great Britain bronze. Tommy Hitchcock Jr., who Olympedia says held a 10-goal handicap for 18 years, won his silver medal here.

Berlin 1936

The last Olympic polo was played on the Maifeld at the Reichssportfeld in Berlin. Five nations entered, but not on equal terms: Argentina, Great Britain and Mexico played for gold, while Germany and Hungary, judged the weaker sides, could at best win bronze. Mexico beat Hungary 16-2 for the bronze medal, and Argentina took gold ahead of Great Britain. The United States did not send a polo team.

The medal table

Olympedia's all-time polo medal table:

Olympedia says only two polo players won two Olympic medals including a gold: Jack, Lord Wodehouse and Frederick Barrett, both Irishmen who represented Great Britain.

Dates in other sources

An EFE report from 2021 lists the same five Games, Paris 1900, London 1908, Antwerp 1920, Paris 1924 and Berlin 1936, with Argentina winning the last two. Some other sources stretch the span: Historic UK says polo was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939, and Wikipedia's Polo article gives both 1900 to 1936 and 1900 to 1939 in different places. Olympedia's record ends in 1936, and no Games were held between 1936 and 1948.

Will polo return?

Olympedia says Olympic polo never attracted many nations. It reports that restoring Olympic status is one of the goals of the Federation of International Polo (FIP), but considers a return unlikely given the sport's exclusivity. The FIP says it is recognised by the International Olympic Committee. Wikipedia dates that recognition to 1998, which we have not been able to confirm from another source. The FIP's own world championships are covered in the international era.