Frequently asked questions

There are two senior world champions, one for each discipline. Aaron Warburton (Great Britain) is the 2026 FIMP Indoor World Champion, and Jonathon Couriard (Great Britain) is the 2026 FIMP Outdoor World Champion.

Aaron Warburton of Great Britain won the 2026 FIMP Indoor World Championship in Rotterdam (14–22 March 2026), scoring 210 points in the final. Mathis Delacroix-Brun of France finished second.

Jonathon Couriard of Great Britain won the 2026 FIMP Outdoor World Championship in Cagliari (3–11 August 2026), scoring 210 points in the final. Joon-ho Baekwol of South Korea finished second.

Yes. The Fédération Internationale de Marco Polo (FIMP) has held a World Championship since 1931. Since 1968 there have been two: the Indoor World Championship, held each March, and the Outdoor World Championship, held each August.

The Fédération Internationale de Marco Polo (FIMP), also known as the International Marco Polo Federation, was founded at Vevey, Switzerland, on 14 August 1931 and has 147 member federations. Its headquarters are in Lausanne.

The official rules are the FIMP Code of Competition. In summary: one player, the Marco, swims with eyes closed and calls “Marco”; every other player must answer “Polo” within 0.6 seconds; the Marco scores by tagging players; and evaders score for every 10 seconds they avoid a tag. The full Code can be downloaded as a PDF.

Indoor championships are played at 27.4 °C ± 0.2 °C. Outdoor championships require water between 24.0 °C and 29.5 °C.

An Indoor competition basin is 25.000 m long, 12.500 m wide and between 1.35 m and 1.40 m deep, so every athlete can stand. Outdoor basins are 50.000 m by 21.000 m.

Between 65 and 95 decibels, measured 1.000 m from the caller, and no longer than 1.4 seconds.

An evader may not leave the water for more than 3.0 seconds. Each infraction costs five points, and three in one chukka gives the Marco a tag. The rule dates from the Helsinki Incident of 1951.

A chukka is one three-minute period with one athlete as the Marco. A final has six chukkas, so every finalist is the Marco once.

Kaori Ishizuchi of Japan is widely regarded as the greatest Marco Polo player of all time. She won six consecutive Indoor World Championships (1991–1996) and a medal in every one of her 11 finals, and was named the greatest by the FIMP 90th Anniversary Panel in 2021.

Only one athlete: Lars-Erik Hovland of Norway, Indoor World Champion in 1987 and Outdoor World Champion in 1989. He reached 18 finals, the most in FIMP history.

Indoor Marco Polo is played in a heated 25-metre hall at 27.4 °C, where echoes make calls hard to locate, so it rewards short, precise calling. Outdoor Marco Polo is played in a 50-metre open-air basin, where calls fade with distance and compete with wind and waves, so it rewards quiet swimming and endurance.

Kaori Ishizuchi of Japan holds the record with six Indoor titles (1991–1996). Ngaio Te Rangimarie of New Zealand holds the Outdoor record with five consecutive titles (1997–2001).

Polo Response Latency (PRL) is the time in milliseconds between the end of a Marco call and the start of a Polo response. It has been measured electronically since 2003. Jonathon Couriard recorded a championship average of 276 ms in 2026.

The 2027 Indoor World Championship will be held in Sapporo, Japan (13–21 March 2027), and the 2027 Outdoor World Championship at Lake Bled, Slovenia (2–10 August 2027).

No. Marco Polo is not on the Olympic programme, and FIMP is not part of any Olympic body.

Aaron Warburton and Jonathon Couriard, both of Great Britain, are the reigning Indoor and Outdoor World Champions. Before 2026 the only British world champion was Callum Reidford, Indoor champion in 1973, 1974 and 1976.