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Afghanistan isn’t just choosing a new president this month. It’s also selecting a new Olympic team. The World’s Aaron Schachter spends time with some of Afghanistan’s would-be water polo Olympians.

Click here to watch a video of the Afghan National Water Polo Team

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. US Marines today launched an assault on a Taliban-held village in southern Afghanistan. The assault was part of a larger effort to secure as much of the country as possible ahead of presidential elections on August 20^th. Nearly everything that happens in Afghanistan right now is happening with those elections in mind. But there’s another selection process taking place that many Afghans are not aware of. Afghan sports officials are busy choosing the 30 members of the country’s national water polo team. They hope the team can be ready to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports.

AARON SCHACHTER: About 50 boys and young men splash around in a pool that would probably be dwarfed by one in your average Beverly Hills backyard. Afghanistan’s national water polo team used to practice here until it ran out of money to hire the pool for two hours each afternoon.

ROHULLAH MAROUF: [SPEAKING DARI]

TRANSLATOR: When we first founded the water polo team we didn’t have a swimming pool so a lot of people were making fun of us – what are you talking about? A water polo team without a swimming pool? You guys don’t have a pool and you have established this team of water polo. What kind of message you are sending to the people?

SCHACHTER: That’s Rohullah Marouf, president of the Afghan Swimming Federation. I suggest that perhaps his job doesn’t keep him very busy.

MAROUF: [LAUGHS AND SPEAKING IN DARI]

TRANSLATOR: For eight years I was the secretary general of the Karate Federation of Afghanistan. We didn’t have anything. We basically start from the scratch. And now the karate Federation is one of the best among the federations within the Afghan Olympics. So we are now again starting from the scratch and I’m optimistic.

SCHACHTER: The thing is karate can be done just about anywhere. Water polo needs a slightly more specific playing surface. Marouf estimates there are 30 swimming pools in all of Afghanistan, a country of just under 25 million people and not a single indoor facility. It’s a luxury to say the least to fill swimming pools when so many in the country don’t have clean water to drink. But Marouf is right when he talks about overcoming odds. Afghan Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze metal in Tai Kwon Do at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Afghan water polo team began last summer after that win with 30 guys under the tutelage of an American coach. Marouf says 200 people will show up for the next set of tryouts but not many people here know the team exists.

Did you know that there’s an Afghan water polo team? Do you even know what water polo is?

MOHAMMED NASIR: No.

SCHACHTER: How old are you?

NASIR: I am 23 years old.

SCHACHTER: Do you swim?

NASIR: Yes a little.

SCHACHTER; Mohammed Nasir is a broad-shouldered kid who I offer up as a promising member of the new team. Rohullah Marouf says a lot of kids like him who splash around in a pool think they’d be good at water polo. It takes more dedication than most are willing to give. Regular practice, when it happens, is 10 hours a week in Kabul. Five of the best current team members live eight hours away. And there’s no pay and no glory – at least not for the foreseeable future. But there is potentially immediate perk. The idea is for the athletes who win spots on the team at this month’s tryouts to head to California in the fall for training assuming the team can find the expense money and secure visas. For The World I’m Aaron Schachter, Kabul, Afghanistan.

WERMAN: You can see a short video featuring Afghanistan’s water polo wannabes at The World dot org.

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