I’ve never played water polo, and after watching the US v. Australia women’s match this morning I don’t think I’d like it. Oh, the swimming and the ball-throwing would be just fine, but my goodness, the contact between opponents is as close to legal mugging as any law-abiding citizen can get.

Of course, when you’re playing for the right to get into the gold medal match you might be a little more intense than in the first couple of games, but the bits of those I saw looked pretty rough too.

Amazing.