Polo and the Olympic Games in history

Polo was introduced at the Summer Olympics in 1900 and was contested in another four Olympiads (1908, 1920, 1924 and 1936), before being removed from the official programme after the 1936 Berlin Games.
Surprisingly Great Britain and Northern Ireland head the medals table with 9 medals in total, with Argentina closely behind.
Polo made its first Olympic appearance in 1900 in Paris, only 24 years after it became an accepted sport in England and in the United States. The Olympic Games were held as part of the Paris Exposition that year, and although the basics of the game have remained unchanged. The organizational format was completely different. What seems to have been the scarcity of world-class players apparently made it necessary for players from USA, England, Spain, France, and Mexico to join together to form four competitive mixed teams. The gold medal winner was a team called the Foxhunters, with the 10-goal American player, and legendary all-around athlete Foxhall Keene playing with Alfred Rawlinson and John Beresford from England, and Frank Mackey, also from the USA.
After a hiatus in 1904, polo was again a part of the action when London hosted the 1908 Olympic Games. The logistics of moving horses more than 7,000 miles must have been prohibitive even for the enthusiastic American, because the USA did not participate. Instead the English and the Irish teams were the only ones that competed. The gold medal went to England.
he Olympic Games where held in Belgium in 1920. Teams from Belgium, England, Spain, and USA all competed. The medal round was played between England and Spain, and after a close match, with the lead changing hands with every chukka, England took the gold with a 13-11 score. In 1924, the Olympic Games returned to Paris. Five teams competed, with Argentina making its first Olympic appearance against the USA, England, Spain, and France. The USA field a talented and strong 26-goal four-man team anchored by the quintessential polo player, 10-goal Tommy Hitchcock.
Emerging as the new polo power, Argentina remained undefeated during the playoffs and then played the USA to a 5-5 tie in six chukkas of intense polo. In the closing seconds of the overtime chukka, an Argentine player, Juan Nelson, snuck one through the uprights. Argentina won and took home its first gold with a score of 6-5.
The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin, and organized by the Third Reich. War in Europe seemed all but imminent. Argentina dominated the 1936 Olympic Games. The crowds where large and knowledgeable and packed the stadium, as England eliminated first Mexico, then Hungary and finally Germany. Argentina, however, seemed unbeatable; in fact, they went undefeated in the playoffs. The finals were even more convincing; Argentina triumphed over England, their last hurdle to a gold, by an 11-
The 1936 Gold medal winning Argentinean team featured Polo legend Manuel Andrada El Paisano. At first, he wasn’t allowed to play polo. Then he could play, but with no stick. He was told to “just take the man.” Then one day, they gave him a stick, and in his first game, he scored 12 goals. In 6 years, he went from 0 to 9 goals in Argentina (and 10 in the rest of the world). He won the Argentine Open 6 times on 6 different teams. At age 74, he was still playing off 4 goals.
Polo never returned to the Olympic competition, but the memory of those heady days lived on in the collective consciousness of the players. When the Federation of International Polo (FIP) was organized in 1982, in response to the growing internationalization of the sport, a return to the Olympic Games once more became a goal and a possibility.
In 1998, the first and perhaps most important step was taken to one day return polo to the Olympic Games. FIP was granted “outright recognition” as the “Recognized Federation” to represent the sport of polo by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This official recognition means that FIP and the IOC are working closely together to prepare the Federation and its members for participation in future Olympic Games.
Irishtimes.com