Liz Byrnes - Europe Correspondent - (Author)

Daniel Leyson has been all over the world for water polo, including an appearance at the Olympics—the highest level of competition for his sport. Along the way on a career that has taken him from club coaching with Rose Bowl to collegiate stops at his alma mater, USC (Class of ’92), and UCLA, to pla...

In a blow to both its prestige and fiscal health, this week USA Water Polo cancelled the 2020 National Junior Olympics (JOs) tournament. The decision, announced in a statement on Thursday, puts an end to USAWP’s attempts to hold the world’s largest youth polo tournament in the midst of the Covid-19 ...

Australian Olympic hopeful Nioka Thomas plans to embark on a grand adventure in the United States. Starting next fall, the 12th year high school water polo player from Meriden School will join the women’s polo program at the University of California Irvine. A member of the Aussie Stingers’ junior na...

Like his peers in the water polo coaching community, Dan Klatt has endured an unexpected stretch of inactivity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic—which as of today has infected more than six million Americans and killed almost 190,000 in the U.S. For Klatt, head coach of the UC Irvine women's te...

Andy Burke, a long-time administrator for water polo who served on numerous U.S. and international committees, passed away last Friday at the age of 91. For his efforts on behalf of American water polo, in 2018 Burke was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) for his substanti...

Editor's Note: Following is one in a series of articles and interviews about the situation with the Chelsea Piers age group water polo club. For the past eight years the club was been under the Chelsea Piers Connecticut (CPCT) umbrella until the program was cut two weeks ago. a victim of the coronav...

Editor's Note: Following is one in a series of articles and interviews about the situation with the Chelsea Piers age group water polo club. For the past eight years the club had been under the Chelsea Piers Connecticut (CPCT) umbrella until the program was cut two weeks ago, a victim of the coronav...

“It was amazing getting back in the water,” said Nate Schulhoff, who confessed it felt like forever since he was last able to swim. For 11-year-old Sabrina Kazemi, along with her friend Naila Noble, the chance to jump into a pool—even in the midst of a pandemic—was simply too good to pass up. “It wa...

At 6 feet 5 inches, Andrei Belofastov is a giant of a man—and a bridge between the Soviet Union’s glorious water polo past and the bright future of what is now a Russian-only endeavor. A member of the Unified Team that took bronze in the 1992 Barcelona Games, Belofastov spoke recently with Swimming ...

Aleksandr Kabanov, who struck Olympic gold in 1972 and 1980 as a player for the Soviet Union men’s water polo team and a pair of bronze medals as coach—in 1988 as an assistant with the USSR in the Seoul Olympics, then as head coach for Russia in the 2004 Athens Games—passed away Wednesday at the age...

A. E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” is an English 101 staple. Employing a simple rhyming scheme, anyone can easily follow Housman’s poetical path, culminating in a four-stanza punch line: Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honors out, Runners whom renown outran And the n...

In yet another blow to the proud tradition of Hungarian water polo, Tibor Benedek, a three-time Olympic champion, European and world water polo champion, died Thursday at the age of 47, the result of pancreatic cancer. On Wednesday, Gyorgy Karpati, a four-time Olympian—including gold medals at the 1...

Editor’s Note: In one of the seminal matches in Eastern water polo history, on November 13, 1977, Pittsburgh faced Bucknell at the Joseph C. Trees Pool for the Eastern Water Polo League Southern Division Championship. A rematch of the 1976 final, won 14-12 by Pitt, with less than a minute remaining ...

With his two-year contract with Pro Recco concluded, the career of Ratko Rudic, the most successful coach in water polo history, is over. Francesco Grillone, who edits the WaterPoloItaly.com site, reports that—as expected—the 72-year-old Rudic will retire as head coach for the Biancocelesti. After b...

Editor's Note: Following an illustrious career in international water polo, Ratko Rudic—the only man in history to coach four Olympic gold water polo medalists—has officially retired from the sport. In a statement translated from Italian, Pro Recco President Maurizio Felugo and Biancocelesti legend ...

It's now a common thread throughout intercollegiate sports: where were you when the novel coronavirus ended the NCAA spring season? As Adam Wright, NCAA men's and women's coach explains below, he and his Bruin women had recently returned to Los Angeles following a successful swing in the Bay Area. T...

Editor’s Note: In one of the seminal matches in Eastern water polo history, on November 13, 1977, Pittsburgh faced Bucknell at the Joseph C. Trees Pool for the Eastern Water Polo League Southern Division Championship. A rematch of the 1976 final, won 14-12 by Pitt, with less than a minute remaining ...

As the coronavirus ravages the country, the human toll is easily traceable. Click on a link and find an up-to-the-minute count of COVID-19 victims. There’s also invisible consequences of this all-too-deadly virus. Fear will be the biggest legacy of the global pandemic, but as Steve Doten, commission...

Editor’s Note: In one of the seminal matches in Eastern water polo history, on November 13, 1977, Pittsburgh faced Bucknell at the Joseph C. Trees Pool for the Eastern Water Polo League Southern Division Championship. A rematch of the 1976 final, won 14-12 by Pitt, with less than a minute remaining ...

Earlier today, USA Water Polo announced a series of postponements for its age group and master level events, throwing into chaos the majority of American water polo competition at a time typically crammed with events that culminate with high-level competition during the summer months. In a statement...