Water Polo - Team South Africa

General
South Africa are making their third appearance at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and their first since the 1960 Games in Rome. They were awarded a place at the Games in Japan as the representative of the African continent and will be looking to finish higher than ninth to secure their best finish at an Olympic tournament.

They have competed at 10 editions of the world championships since 1994 but have never broken into the top 10. At the 2019 tournament, they progressed from their group thanks to a superior goal difference over New Zealand but saw their campaign halted by Germany in the play-offs, losing 25-5. They went on to suffer two further heavy defeats in the classification round, to the United States of America and Japan, and finished the tournament ranked 12th.

The South African team competed at the World Cup in 2014 and 2018, and played in the World League Super Final in 2009 and 2010. They are yet to reach the podium in either tournament.