After what seems years of relative international water polo inactivity, the FINA Women’s World League Super Final has come out of hibernation.

With the Tokyo Olympics looming, the Super Final, being played at the Olympic Indoor Pool here in Athens, will come alive, albeit in a quieter atmosphere and about 18 months after the current event started and was curtailed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

We all remember those heady days in 2004 when Greece surged into the gold-medal women’s final, only to stumble to Italy in the second edition of the women’s game at the elitest of levels. This week there will be no spectators other than those immediately involved in the competition.

The Super Final is the virtual domain of United States of America, having won 13 of the 16 competitions, and not having a blemish since China won in 2013.

USA has, in fact, claimed most of the titles on offer around the globe ever since Adam Krikorian took over the coaching reins more than a decade ago and current form suggests it will once again be the team to beat.

GROUP B

USA heads up Group B and will clash with Spain, Kazakhstan and Greece in the rounds.

GROUP A

Hungary, Russia, Canada and Olympic host Japan will battle it out in the other group.

The six-day event will give us a taste of what’s to come in Tokyo as teams dust off the cobwebs and try to catch up from where their international careers were stalled as the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the globe. Only USA, Canada, Spain, Hungary and Russia will make the transition to Tokyo.

USA hosted Canada and Hungary at home as an initial lead-up to Athens and came away with 3-0 series wins both times. It seems that while Covid might have sent countries into lockdown, it did not diminish USA’s desire to maintain its No 1 ranking.

The World League throws up some interesting combinations as countries favour certain events and this year is no exception as Australia will not play for the first time, citing Covid-related difficulties.

The upside-down nature of teams bursting to qualify for the Olympics has seen the World League miss out on other teams. Netherlands and Italy, both Olympic champions, failed to qualify for Athens, but Netherlands will be in Tokyo, having finished top-two at the Olympic Games Qualification Tournament.

Greece will be looking for some consolation of missing the Olympics yet again after losing to Netherlands 7-4 in the OGQT semifinal.

Japan will be hoping to fine-tune its game as the host nation and Hungary — a 13-10 victor over Greece at the OGQT — will want to prove it is a true Olympic medal contender.

For the record, USA has won 13 golds, a silver and a bronze at World League level.

Canada has two silver medals; Greece has one gold (2005) and three bronzes; Russia has one gold (2008), two silvers and three bronzes. Spain snared silver in 2016 in its eight appearances.

Kazakhstan makes a return after the first event in 2004 while Japan finished eighth in 2017 and 2018. Hungary’s only medal came in the loss to USA in the inaugural event in 2004.

The opening day has Spain playing Kazakhstan, Hungary versus Japan, Canada against Russia and USA taking on Greece.

Check the event schedules