The Australia national women's water polo team represents Australia in women's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Water Polo Australia. It was one of the most successful women's water polo teams in the world. It is currently organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group.
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The Australia women's water polo team played their first international in 1975. Since that time they have gone from strength to strength. The team have often had to struggle with lack of funding, but despite that continued to perform credibly on the international stage.
Following 6th place at the 1994 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Italy, they won the women's Water polo World Cup at home in Sydney, Australia, in 1995. In 1996, the women won the silver medal in the Olympic Year Tournament behind the Netherlands, then finished with bronze in the following year's World Cup in Nancy, France. Australia continued their successful mid-1990s run by winning the bronze medal at the 1998 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, and remarkably over the rest of 1998 and 1999 were unbeatable, winning the four international tournaments they contested in the Netherlands, Italy, the United States and Hungary.
After an incredible 14 month winning streak, they only managed the silver at the 1999 world cup in Winnipeg, Canada.
Another success came in 1997 when it was announced that women's Water polo would be included in the Olympic Games for the first time at their home Olympics in 2000 Summer Olympics.
Having had an excellent build up to the Sydney 2000, the team went into the first Olympic tournament at home. They lost one match to the powerful Dutch side in that historic campaign, on the way to winning their inaugural women's Olympic gold medal in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
In an incredible Olympic final, the evenly matched US and Australia sides were tied 3–3 with 1.3 seconds remaining on the clock, when Yvette Higgins blasted in a nine-metre shot from a free throw. The ball crossed the goal-line 0.2s from the final hooter to give Australia a 4–3 win, and the gold medal.
The Australia gold team medalists were: Naomi Castle, Jo Fox, Bridgette Gusterson (C), Simone Hankin, Kate Hooper, Yvette Higgins, Bronwyn Mayer, Gail Miller, Melissa Mills, Debbie Watson, Liz Weekes, Danielle Woodhouse, and Taryn Woods.
The team was brought back down to earth with an Olympic hangover in 2001, only managing 5th in the World Championships of that year. This dip in form was short lived, however, as they won the inaugural Commonwealth Water Polo Championships title in Manchester, England in 2002, beating world No 3 Canada 6–5 in the final.
Australia then suffered another lean patch, finishing 7th at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, 4th at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and 6th at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The team returned to successful ways by taking the bronze at the 2005 FINA Water Polo World League event in Kirishi, Russia, and at the 2007 Water polo world championship in Melbourne, Australia by taking the silver medal, after losing a hard fought final 5–6 to the US team.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, the team took the bronze medal after beating Hungary for 3rd place in a penalty shootout.
| Year | Games | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 2000 Summer Olympics, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |  Gold medal (won 6–3 v Russia, lost 4–5 v Netherlands, won 7–6 v USA, won 9–4 v Canada, won 7–6 v Russia, won 4–3 v USA (gold medal match)) |
| 2004 | 2004 Summer Olympics, Athens, Greece | 4th (won 6–5 v Italy, lost 4–9 v Kazakhstan, tie 7–7 v Greece, lost 2–6 v Greece, lost 5–6 v USA (bronze medal match)). |
| 2008 | 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing, China |  Bronze medal (won 8–6 v Greece, tie 7–7 v Hungary, won 10–9 v Netherlands, won 12–11 v China, lost 9–8 v USA, won 8–8 with penalty shootout 4–3 v Hungary (bronze medal match)). |
| 2012 | 2012 Summer Olympics, London, Great Britain | Bronze medal (won 10–8 v Italy, won 16–3 v Great Britain, won 11–8 v Russia, won 16–16 with penalty shootout 4–2 v China, lost 9–11 v USA, won 13–11 after overtime v Hungary (bronze medal match)). |
| 2016 | 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 6th (won 14–4 Russia, lost 7–8 Italy, won 11–3 v Brazil, lost 8–8 Hungary on penalty shootout, won 11–4 Brazil, lost 10–12 Spain (5th–6th playoff) |
Gold medal 1984 Los Angeles Gold medal 1995 Sydney Gold medal 2006 Tianjin 
Silver medal 1991 Long Beach Silver medal 1999 Winnipeg Silver medal 2010 Christchurch Silver medal 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk Bronze medal 1979 Merced, California Bronze medal 1981 Brisbane Bronze medal 1983 Quebec City Bronze medal 1997 Nancy Gold medal Manchester 2002 Gold medal Perth 2006
Gold medal Gold medalRoster for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. [2]
Head coach: Rebecca Rippon
Gold medalGold medalGold medalBronze medalGold medalBronze medalSilver medalSilver medalBronze medalAustralia's women have won two titles at the FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships. [3]
The Netherlands women's national water polo team is the national team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was one of the leading teams in the world during the 1980s and 1990s. More recently they are one of the top teams again claiming the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 European Championships. The team is governed by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Zwembond (KNZB).
The Australian national water polo team represents Australia in men's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Water Polo Australia. The national men's team has the nickname of "The Sharks". It is organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group.
The United States women's national water polo team represents the United States in international women's water polo competitions and friendly matches. It is one of the leading teams in the world since the late 1990s.
The Canada women's national water polo team represents Canada in women's international water polo competitions and friendly matches. The team is overseen by Water Polo Canada, a member of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA). In 1981 the team claimed its first international prize, winning the FINA Water Polo World Cup.
The Italy women's national water polo team represents Italy in international women's water polo competitions and friendly matches. The team is one of the leading teams in Europe since the mid-1990s, claiming the title at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The squad is nicknamed the Setterosa.
The 2006 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup was the fourteenth edition of the event, organised by the world's governing body in aquatics, the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The event took place in Tianjin, PR China from August 8 to August 13, 2006. Participating teams were the eight best teams from the last World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2005). The top-five qualified for the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia.
The Canada men's national water polo team represents Canada in international men's water polo competitions and friendly matches. The team is overseen by Water Polo Canada, a member of the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA). The team qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China by finishing fourth at 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Romania.
The China women's national water polo team represents China in international women's water polo competitions and friendly matches. It is one of the leading teams in Asia.
The China men's national water polo team represents China in international water polo competitions and friendly matches. It is one of the leading teams in Asia.
The Greece men's national water polo team represents Greece in international men's water polo competitions and it is organized and run by the Hellenic Swimming Federation.
The Germany national water polo team represents Germany in international men's water polo competitions and friendly matches. It is controlled by German Swimming Federation.
The United States men's national water polo team is the representative for the United States of America in international men's water polo.
The Italy national water polo team represents Italy in men's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Federnuoto. The national men's team has the nickname of "Settebello", a reference to both the Italian card game scopa and a standard water polo team having seven players.
The Japan men's national water polo team is the representative for Japan in international men's water polo.
Australia competed at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, China from 16 to 31 July 2011. Australian athletes have competed in every FINA World Aquatics Championships. Swimming Australia sent a total of 97 athletes to the Championships to compete in all 5 sports.
Rebecca Marie Rippon is an Australian former water polo player. She represented Australia as a member of the Australia women's national water polo team at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics, where she won a bronze medal.
Melissa Alison Rippon is an Australian former water polo player. She played for the Brisbane Barracudas who compete in the National Water Polo League. She represented Australia in water polo at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics and at the 2012 Summer Olympics winning bronze medals at both of the latter two. She has earned a bronze medal at the 2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup.
Kate Maree Gynther is an Australian former water polo player. She played for the Brisbane Barracudas in the National Water Polo League. She represented Australia as a member of the women's senior national team at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal at the 2008 and 2012 Games. She is a leading goalscorer in Olympic water polo history, with 30 goals. She was the joint top sprinter at the 2012 Olympics with 21 sprints won; and a leading sprinter in Olympic water polo history, with 39 sprints won. She has also won a bronze medal at the 2005 Super League Finals.
The women's water polo tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 30 July to 9 August at the Water Polo Arena.
This article lists various water polo records and statistics in relation to the Australia women's national water polo team at the Summer Olympics.
Australia squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Women's water polo tournament winners | |||||||||||||
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