Polo has been played on snow and ice for over a quarter of a century. How did the idea come about, and when? Where is snow polo played? Let’s take a look into the history of snow polo.
When in the mid eighties a small group of Swiss had the crazy idea of playing polo on the frozen surface of Lake St. Moritz in Engadin, nobody would have thought that they were in the process of enacting a worldwide success model. Today, over a quarter of a century later, the St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow is one of the most prized polo tournaments in the world and snow polo is one of the most loved variations of polo and enjoys excellent followings all over the world. New locations are added to the impressive list every year, and snow polo is now played at the most renowned and popular winter sports venues and polo destinations all around the globe.
Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy was the first to follow in the footsteps of the success story of St. Moritz. As in Engadin, matches in the Dolomites are on a frozen lake, first on Lago di Landro, later Lago di Misurina. The Polo Masters in Megève in France is another one of the earliest snow polo tournaments, as are the World Snow Polo Championship in Aspen/Colorado and the Snow Polo World Cup in Kitzbühel, Austria. In 2011, the Snow Polo World Cup in Tianjin celebrated the first and as yet only debut of snow polo in Asia. Snow polo is (and was) also played in Argentina, Poland, in Slovakia, Russia, Spain and Germany.
1985: St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow, St. Moritz/Switzerland
1989: Cortina Winter Polo, Cortina/Italy
1996: Polo Masters, Megève/France
2000: World Snow Polo Championship, Aspen/USA
2003: Snow Polo World Cup, Kitzbühel/Austria
2004: Polo Cup on Snow, Livigno/Italy (1)
2004: Russian Snow Polo Cup, Moscow/Russia
2005: Snow Polo, Klosters/Switzerland (2)
2007: Snow Polo Cathedral, Cerro Catedral/Argentina
2008: Verbier Polo Cup, Verbier/Switzerland*
2008: Zakopane Snow Polo, Zakopane/Poland (3)
2008: Snow Polo Cerro Bayo, Villa La Angostura/Argentina
2009: Snow Arena Polo World Cup, Courchevel/France*
2009: Polo Masters, Val d’Isère/France
2009: Argentina Snow Cup, Chapelco/Argentina
2010: Snow Polo Trophy, Štrbské Pleso/Slovakia*
2010: Snow Polo Cup, Sierra Nevade/Spain*
2010: Fin del Mundo Snow Polo Cup, Ushuaia/Argentina
2011: China Snow Polo World Cup, Tianjin/China = Asia`s first snow polo tournament
2011: Polo Masters, Courchevel/France
2011: A Quechua Ice Polo Trophy / Snow Polo EM, Turracher Höhe/Austria
2011: Snow Polo Masters, Wendlinghausen/Germany
2012: Polo Snow Night, Chiemsee/Germany
2013: Poloworld Trophy on Snow, Neumarkt/Germany
2013: Bukovina Polo Snow Masters, Bukovina/Poland
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