Serbia wins third Olympic gold in men’s water polo

Paris. With a decisive first half, the Serbian men’s water polo team beat Croatia in the final on Sunday by 13-11 and claimed their third consecutive Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024.

In one of the last competitions of this year’s Olympic Games, which close tonight, the Serbians took the lead in the first half with a partial score of 5-2 in the swimming pool at Paris’ La Défense Arena.

The Serbians, captained by Nikola Jaksic and with a solid defense, managed to manage the advantage in the next two periods, with partial scores of 3-3, and stopped the Croatians, reigning world champions, who won the last and fourth period by 3-2.

With this, Serbia maintains the title won in Rio 2016 – when they defeated Croatia, 11-7 in the final – and confirmed in Tokyo 2020, against Greece.

Previously, only the United Kingdom, between 1908 and 1920, and Hungary, from 2000 to 2008, had achieved this treble.

In the bronze medal match, the United States and Hungary tied at 8-8 after four regular periods, but the Americans were more accurate in the penalty shootout (3-0) and took the medal with a final score of 11-8.

In the battle for fifth place, Greece beat Spain 15-13.