How Australia can harness home support in lead up to Brisbane 2032

Water Polo Australia goal to deliver more world-class events ahead of Brisbane 2032 Wed 5 Aug 2026 at 12:47pm Water Polo Australia has hailed the enormous success of the World Cup finals in Sydney, saying that it proves Australia is in an ideal position to host more World Aquatics events in the lead up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. Sydney hosted the eight-team World Cup finals over five days at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, the first time a major global Water Polo event had been hosted in the city since the 2000 Olympics. Australia's Stingers won a hugely impressive bronze medal, following on from their memorable silver medal at the Paris Olympics to firmly establish themselves as one of Australia's most likeable and backable teams. Meanwhile, the Sharks finished an enormously credible fourth, beating world champions Spain in a heroic penalty shoot out in the quarterfinals to underline their status as a team that is building to be a genuine medal contender for the 2032 Games. But more importantly, more than 10,000 spectators came through the doors across the five days, creating a memorable atmosphere at the former Olympic venue. And the Australian players certainly appreciated it. "To have a whole pool full of our friends and family, and the water polo community, it's really special … this is such a huge part of our careers and something that we'll never forget," Sienna Hearn said after the semifinal loss to the USA. "The atmosphere [in Sydney] is so special for all of us and makes us want to try even harder for our friends and family." Bronte Halligan noted that it was the home support that made the difference for the Stingers as they fought back from defeat against the USA to win bronze. "Any game on home soil is unreal. But then to win a medal, at a world event, on home soil is just phenomenal," she said. "The crowd was epic, they got us through the game, we stayed in it, we got the result and I couldn't be prouder of the girls." Head coach Bec Rippon agreed, calling the crowd "amazing". "We don't get many opportunities to play in these big moments — and for this team the semifinal the other day was only the second ever semifinal that we've played in," she said. "So to have opportunities like this, under pressure, with a crowd, you can't buy that kind of experience. "We have such a privilege of going overseas and playing in front of other nations' home crowds, so it was really amazing to be able to do that for our fans, friends and family here tonight who follow us all over the world." Water Polo Australia hungry for more It's not a surprise that Water Polo Australia wants to see more of that support over the next six years and beyond. "We were really keen to make sure we leveraged the home crowd advantage," Water Polo Australia chief executive Tim Welsford told ABC Sport the day after the tournament, his voice still hoarse from cheering on during a thrilling week of water polo. "In the early stages of planning there was a very clear line of sight on what we wanted, to have the opportunity for kids to come into the centre, to buy a Sharks or Stingers top, to put the war paint on their face, the zinc, and sit in the crowd and support their team. "That was a very clear vision for us about what we wanted to deliver in terms of the user experience inside the venue, and I think we went very close to nailing that. "I think anyone who was in the venue, and it probably came across on the broadcast, will tell you how electric the atmosphere was. "And that wasn't just the Australian games, even the men's gold medal game between Hungary and Greece, we had this beautiful picture of all the Greece fans in the blue seats, all the Hungary fans in the green seats, and we had all the Aussie water polo purists sitting in the middle. "And at 7 o'clock on Sunday night, we still had the most incredible atmosphere." Remarkably, Water Polo Australia was able to garner such incredible community buy-in with just eight months lead-in time. Welsford said that if they were given longer, they could layer even more onto the event and what they could achieve. "We've got an appetite to do more of this into the future," Welsford said. "That's why we really sort of pushed to make every post a winner this time so that World Aquatics, considers us … a really safe pair of hands for them to be able to allocate events to, that they know they're going to get a great result here. "I'm confident they walked away with that exact feeling. "We talked often about what does success look like [for this event], and you've got all those [attendance and social media] metrics and I think that's a really important piece and we will measure those, of course. "But the community-building success was just incredible — people that are reaching out saying, we need to host more of these. "Australia is cherry ripe for this type of thing … There is a real appetite here for us to do this again. And so we want to support that community groundswell. "We would love to have it back." Some of the metrics truly have been encouraging, with almost 14 million social media views in the lead up to and during the event, coupled with the huge attendances. "Our numbers in the last three months have been bigger than our Olympic year in terms of the social media views," Welsford said. "This is an unbelievable opportunity for us to be able to showcase the sport." Water Polo, although a relatively niche sport in Australia, is huge in Europe. And despite being a long way from the sport's heartland, one of the key features of the tournament was how much support other nations received — none of which was by accident. Water Polo Australia reached out to the embassies of all nations participating in the event to help drum up support within their communities, which was realised in a vibrant, multicultural crowd celebrating the sport throughout the five days. Even the thorny issue of Russia's involvement — the women's team qualified and became the first international Russian team to compete on Australian soil since the country was banned in the wake of the Ukraine War. "I think everybody understandably was a little bit on edge a little bit around how that would play out, and we are continually empathetic to the Ukrainian community and what's going on over there at the moment," Welsford said, noting that Australia, as an organising committee, does not get the option to select which teams qualify for the event. "So it's our job to then accept our lot and make the best of the situation and try and put on a great show for everyone," he added. "We did have a Ukrainian protest, they were really well organised, extremely peaceful, they did everything they could to amplify their message and we thank them for doing it in the way that they did as well." National Aquatic Centre essential for aquatics legacy A key factor in being able to host more events will be the development of the National Aquatic Centre in Brisbane, a venue that Water Polo Australia, along with their diving and artistic swimming counterparts, really lobbied for before getting Swimming Australia on board. "The National Aquatic Centre concept was actually initiated firstly by water polo, but then in conjunction with diving and artistic swimming," Welsford said. "Under Rob Woodhouse's leadership, [Swimming Australia] sort of joined the scheme a couple of years ago, but it was largely driven by the other three aquatic sports. "But since Rob's come on board, it's been fantastic that it's been all four of us and we've been really well united and supportive of each other, making sure that we can all get something that's really ticks the legacy box for us. "People will talk about 2032 and what that means, but even last night talking to the Sydney 2000 crew, there were so many events in the lead into 2000 that we hosted here locally. "People and countries wanted to come out and have that experience prior [to the Games]. "So in the context of us hosting this year, this is the start of it for us. "We want more of these international style events here over the next six years and we believe countries will want to come, particularly given the experience they've had over the last five or six days. "We want to do more of that as we move forward. "The National Aquatic Centre delivers us that legacy venue that we need. I think if anybody experienced what Sydney Olympic Park was able to do for us — not that was built for the Olympics, but it was the Olympic venue — it stands up so well in terms of a legacy asset for us to be able to use. "You know, 26 years after the Olympic Games and 30 years after it's been built, it's still being used as a world-class event for aquatics. "It's a phenomenal opportunity that we need to make sure we get right in terms of the National Aquatic Centre." [Image text:] ytephympirPark