Return to Tokyo 1964: Team at the water polo pool

The Tokyo Metropolitan Indoor Swimming Pool was the setting for water polo during the 1964 Games. The Dutch men had to settle for eighth place and the gold went to Hungary. Former water polo international Fred van Dorf will never forget the group match against the United States. He was actually face to face with his older brother Don, who was the goalkeeper for the Americans that evening.

America-fan

Fred and Dunn Van Dorp were captains of their respective teams. Fred van Dorp took the lead Radio Olympia Reminds me of a special fraternal conflict with Edwin Cornelison and tells me about their life course. “We lived with our parents in the United States in the 1950s. At one point we moved back to the Netherlands. I enrolled at AZ&PC at the Water Polo Club in Amersford. After my brother graduated from school, he returned to the United States. He was a fan of America, he said.” Said Fred van Dorp.

Brother Dunn served in the military in California, where water polo was a popular sport. “He once went to a match and then signed for a club. Ton stopped all the balls there and they thought he should become the goalkeeper for the American team. I joined the national team via the Dutch youth teams.

Prince Bernard Beer

It then came into conflict at the Games in Tokyo. “My brother knew my shot, I knew he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world. I came out as a center forward in a situation and passed him by. But he got revenge: I got fined last season. You don’t have to think about where you shoot, but you have to know yourself. My brother had an idea of ​​where I was going to shoot, and he stopped the ball, and then Beatrice sat down as he dropped his hand to the Grandstand where Prince Bernard and Princess were.

The Netherlands defeated the United States 6-4. “We played against each other, didn’t plan on each other or anything. But that goal stopped me from counting and throwing a penalty at him. No, we weren’t joking about it,” Fred van Dorp said four years later at the start of the 1968 Games in Mexico he was allowed to carry the Dutch flag.

In those games, the Netherlands and the United States faced each other again at the water polo pool, again with the Van Dorp brothers. Fred took part in the Netherlands, but was sent to fight with his brother by the ton American coach. “I remember we talked to Prince Bernard before that game. He said: ‘Do humans want a beer? I said:’ Your Highness, I have another game to play ‘. My brother said:’ Your Highness, I want a beer from you ‘, haha . “