Water polo, and team sport in general, made its Olympic debut at the 1900 Summer Games held in Paris, France.

Three members of the Brussels Swimming and Water Polo Club, Georges Romer, Guillaume Séron, and A. R. Upton, are also left off of some lists despite evidence that they participated in the first round.

[5] The roster for the Osborne Swimming Club of Manchester as listed by the International Olympic Committee is Thomas Coe, John Henry Derbyshire, Peter Kemp, William Lister, Arthur G. Robertson, Eric Robinson, and George Wilkinson.

Lister, however, had died two weeks prior to the Games,[4] while Derbyshire, Robinson, and Wilkinson all played water polo matches in England either during the tournament or too soon after it to have traveled back from Paris in time.

"[4] All entries are listed as per Mallon's "The 1900 Olympic Games" unless otherwise noted:[9] The water polo tournament was held at the river Seine,[16] with the first round taking place on 11 August.

Osborne, with the medal later credited to Great Britain,[3] became the first Olympic water polo champions and "descriptions of the matches make it appear that they won as they wished, and the margins could have been larger, had they pressed the matter".