Britain’s water polo late bloomer Toula Falvey has the stomach for success

SINGAPORE – The night before her second training session with Britain’s women’s water polo team in 2021, Toula Falvey had severe stomach pain and was vomiting.

Rushed to Ealing Hospital, what was initially diagnosed as kidney stones turned out to be renal vein thrombosis – a condition in which a blood clot forms in one of both of the veins that filter blood from the kidneys – after scans showed a swollen left kidney.

Like a bolt from the blue, the doctor said that the kidney might need to be removed, and there was a possibility that she would not be able to play water polo again.

“It was definitely like a super emotional time for me,” said the 25-year-old British-American after their 20-12 loss to New Zealand in the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) 9th-12th place semi-final on July 19.

“I was going over to England to live with my grandparents and train with the national team, I was training super hard every day, and I was told my kidney might already be dead, and they needed to operate right away.

“It was a really, really hard time, not only because I was very worried about losing a kidney, but also losing my sport and my passion. I’m an athlete for life, and I was genuinely worried that I would never be able to play the sport again.”

Fortunately, a surgeon at the neighbouring Northwick Park Hospital was able to break up the clot. Falvey then had to cope with a long road to recovery. After being hospitalised for 14 days, she was on blood thinners for six months.

With a sarcastic laugh, she said: “I swam the entire time, which was super fun and my favourite thing to do.

“I couldn’t do contact sports, I couldn’t even block because when I was on blood thinners, I bruised and bled easily. I was out for about eight months in total, which was super hard.”

But the professional water polo athlete, who plays for Club Natacio Catalunya in Spain, does not do things the easy way.

She was a team sports-loving girl who played basketball, football and American football. After knowing she was not going to make the volleyball team, she went for her high school water polo try-out.

She said: “I actually never learnt how to swim properly until I came into water polo.

“I’ll never forget the first day of practice, and our coach Sophie Doyle made us swim twenty 100 metres, and by the time the whole team finished swimming the twenty, I had done two. I was about to quit that day, and she said she believed in me and could see me playing in NCAA Division 1, and she was going to build me into a really good player.”

Not only did Falvey end up playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 with the University of the Pacific in California, she rejoined the British national team and helped them reach the WCH for the first time in 11 years in 2024 – they eventually finished 11th.

In Singapore, they beat France and South Africa to finish second in Group B behind Olympic champions Spain, before disappointing defeats by Japan and New Zealand in the knockout rounds.

They will take on France again in the 11th-place play-off and after the championships, the next step is to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since London 2012.

Falvey said: “We are all super excited about having 12 women’s teams at LA 2028, and it’s a huge opportunity for us. We did really well to finish seventh at the European Championships in 2024, and we want to show we belong on the world and Olympic stage.”

The quarter-finals on July 19 were a more keenly contested affair among the big guns.

World Cup champions and World No. 5 Greece edged out Olympic silver medallists and sixth-ranked Australia 8-7, thanks to Maria Myriokefalitaki’s winning goal with two seconds to spare. They will face defending champions and world No. 3 United States, who thumped 14th-ranked Japan 26-8, in the semi-finals on July 21.

The other semi-final will pit world No. 4 Hungary, who beat seventh-ranked Italy 12-9, against Olympic champions and top-ranked Spain, who beat Olympic bronze medallists and world No. 2 Netherlands 4-2 on penalties after the match ended in a thrilling 11-11 draw.

Hosts Singapore concluded their campaign with an 8-4 loss to South Africa in the 15th-place play-off to finish last, though they improved on their 20-6 defeat in 2024.

Croatia beat Argentina 4-2 in a shoot-out after a 12-12 draw in the 13th-spot play-off.

While Singapore women’s water polo coach Yu Lei felt the team could have converted their chances better and tightened their defence, he said they have grown since the previous championships. They narrowed the goal difference across five defeats from 15-139 to 27-114.

He said: “We lose out in terms of height, weight and power, but we can improve in terms of our mobility, fitness and technique.

“To do so, we will strive for more opportunities to compete and train overseas. We will send our women’s team to a youth tournament in China in September, and the Sept 28-Oct 10 Asian Aquatics Championships in India, before an overseas training camp in November to prepare for the SEA Games in December.

“I’ve always emphasised that our aim is to snatch the gold away from Thailand. I used the term snatch because they are defending champions who have home ground advantage which we have to overcome by lifting our standards.”

Noting that there are fewer than 100 females playing water polo in Singapore, skipper Abielle Yeo hoped that the support and infrastructure will continue to improve to help the women’s scene.

She said: “Hopefully the WCH has exposed women’s water polo to more people, and more will come join us, and the level of play here will go up with a bigger player base.”