World Aquatics has announced that 4X4 open water polo will be contested at the organization’s biggest stage, the World Championships. The sport will be contested at the next iteration of Worlds, which takes place in summer 2027 in Budapest, with the inaugural championships this summer serving as the qualifying event for the big dance next year.
Dubbed “WP4,” this sport differs from traditional water polo in several ways. Most notably, teams consist of four players instead of seven. With the smaller team sizes comes a smaller field of play and a shorter time allotment. World Aquatics says that the sport’s format “is designed to offer a faster, more flexible, and globally accessible format for the sport.”
WP4 can also be contested from a traditional pool setting or from open water. The sport’s biggest roots come from the amateur “Divla Liga,” or “Wild League,” which has held tournaments on the coast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. High-profile professional water polo players such as Croatian national team captain Marko Bijac and Spain’s top goalie Unai Aguirre have participated in the Divla Liga.
See what open water polo looks like from the Divla Liga tournament last summer on the second slide below:
Given the city’s history with the sport, World Aquatics chose Dubrovnik as the host city for the inaugural 2026 Open Championships this summer. Nations can register up to two teams per gender for the event, which takes place from August 31st through September 6th. Full details on tournament format and rules have yet to be announced, but they will likely come after the June 19th registration deadline.
