By Sofia Wright—Content Editor
Goggles are meant to protect the eyes from dust, dirt, chemicals and even water. But sometimes things meant to protect only do more damage.
Water polo, a water-born, full-contact sport, requires its participants to be goggleless in chlorine-filled water.
Along with no goggles, water polo itself combines the psychological torment of playing handball with the brutality of ice hockey and lacrosse, all with the bonus of potentially drowning.
In 2011, Bleacher Report took all those factors into consideration and named water polo the toughest sport in the world.
But back to keeping sights on sight, there are several variables that make the sport difficult.
If the bright, butter-colored gameball hurled through the air and landed smack dab in the face of a water polo player, who was wearing goggles, they would leave the pool with a black eye.
“This rule is in place to prevent injury. As water polo is a full contact sport, elbows are often thrown while players jockey for possession of the ball,” said Rachel Andersen, a student writer at Swimming World Magazine. “If a player were wearing goggles while getting hit in the face, they could be subject to a serious eye injury.”
Goggles might be great for seeing straight, but are terrible for peripheral vision, or looking side-to-side. They’re almost like blinders.
They offer a plethora of problems. They can fall off, fill with water, break, come unlaced or get foggy.
Eyes can actually easily adjust to chlorine. And, as an added advantage, water polo players are not consistently under the water like swimmers.
The strain and redness of eyes comes when switching between chlorine and salt water.
“When you play in a chlorinated pool and then you go to a salt water pool your eyes are dying,” said sophomore Emma Hank. “And then when you go from a salt water pool to a chlorinated pool your eyes are dying, there’s no time to adjust or anything.”
Handling tasks above the water is one thing, but what goes on under the water, for the most part, stays under the water.
Physicality is monitored by the referees on the pool deck, but they can only make calls based on what they see, which is all above water.
Players are constantly jockeying for position and wrestling for an advantage over their opponent below the waterline.
What looks like a clean pass can be the result of a swift kick to the gut. A defender could grab an ankle to keep the opponent from swimming away with the ball. This move is illegal and would normally be called an exclusion foul, but it happens underwater.
Players aren’t supposed to dunk or swim over their opponents, but such fouls occur anyway. If a referee doesn’t see the start of the play, it’s difficult to know whether what they are seeing is a foul or if a player is just faking, so no call is made.
“There’s a lot that goes on under the water,” said junior Tyanna Supreme. “Whether it’s suit-holding or someone throwing an elbow to your gut … a lot of the time refs don’t really see those things.”
Natalie Benson, a two-time Water Polo Olympian, told the New York Times how players try to garner an advantage.
She explained that, because players can’t touch the bottom of the pool, they have to find ways to create their own leverage through using their opponents.
Benson also mentioned that players will often take the blame for their own injuries if they feel that they have made an irresponsible mistake.
For example, a player could put their head underwater right where two other players are frantically wrestling for the ball.
As brutal as water polo appears to spectators, Benson said that even though “gamesmanship and protecting yourself and your teammates is very important, violence has no place in the sport.”
Follow Sofia on Twitter @sofiagwright