The Australia national women's water polo team represents Australia in women's internationalwater polo competitions and is controlled byWater Polo Australia. It was one of themost 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 the1994 World Aquatics Championships inRome, Italy, they won the women's Water polo World Cup at home inSydney, 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 inNancy, France. Australia continued their successful mid-1990s run by winning the bronze medal at the1998 World Aquatics Championships inPerth, and remarkably over the rest of 1998 and 1999 were unbeatable, winning the four international tournaments they contested in theNetherlands,Italy, theUnited States andHungary.
After an incredible 14 month winning streak, they only managed the silver at the 1999 world cup inWinnipeg, Canada.
Another success came in 1997 when it was announced that women's Water polo would be included in theOlympic Games for the first time at their home Olympics in2000 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 Olympicgold 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, whenYvette 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, andTaryn Woods.
The team was brought back down to earth with an Olympic hangover in 2001, only managing 5th in theWorld Championships of that year. This dip in form was short lived, however, as they won the inauguralCommonwealth Water Polo Championships title inManchester, England in 2002, beating world No 3Canada 6–5 in the final.
Australia then suffered another lean patch, finishing 7th at the2003 World Aquatics Championships inBarcelona, Spain, 4th at the2004 Summer Olympics inAthens, and 6th at the2005 World Aquatics Championships inMontreal, Quebec, Canada.
The team returned to successful ways by taking the bronze at the 2005FINA Water Polo World League event inKirishi, Russia, and at the 2007Water polo world championship inMelbourne, Australia by taking the silver medal, after losing a hard fought final 5–6 to the US team.
At the2008 Summer Olympics, the team took the bronze medal after beatingHungary 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) |
| 2024 | 2024 Summer Olympics,Paris, France |  Silver medal (won 7–4 China, won 15–14 Netherlands on penalty shootout, won 10–7 Canada, won 14–12 Hungary on penalty shootout, won 9–6 Greece, won 14–13 United on penalty shootout (semi-final), lost 9–11 Spain (final) |
Gold medal Manchester 2002Gold medal Perth 2006
Gold medal Gold medalRoster for the2025 World Championships.[2][3]
Head coach:Rebecca Rippon
Gold medalGold medalGold medalBronze medalGold medalBronze medalSilver medalSilver medalBronze medalAustralia's women have won two titles at theFINA Junior Water Polo World Championships.[4]
Australia squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Women's water polo tournament winners | |||||||||||||
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