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A fierce sport above water, an international street fight below it

By Pat Forde
ESPN.com

Thursday, August 21, 2008

BEIJING -- When playing at the 2-meter line in water polo, what happens beneath the surface stays beneath the surface. If you're driving your knuckles into the other guy's ribs, do it with a straight face. Kneeing him in the kidney? Try to keep your hands busy so no one suspects. Even if the scrum gets worse than that, betray no emotion. And it can get worse than that. "I've had my eyes gouged, [testicles] grabbed, gotten stitches," American center Ryan Bailey said. "There's tons of stuff tha ...

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