Australia
FINA codeAUS
Nickname(s)Stingers
AssociationWater Polo Australia
ConfederationOSA (Oceania)
Head coachRebecca Rippon
Asst coach[[]]
CaptainZoe Arancini
FINA ranking (since 2008)
Current7 (as of 9 August 2021)
Highest2 (2010)
Lowest7 (2016, 2017, 2018, 2021)
Olympic Games (team statistics)
Appearances5 (first in 2000)
Best result1st place, gold medalist(s) (2000)
World Championship
Appearances16 (first in 1986)
Best result1st place, gold medalist(s) (1986)
World Cup
Appearances17 (first in 1979)
Best result1st place, gold medalist(s) (1984, 1995, 2006)
World League
Appearances16 (first in 2004)
Best result2nd place, silver medalist(s) (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015)
Commonwealth Championship
Appearances2 (first in 2002)
Best result1st place, gold medalist(s) (2002, 2006)
Media
Websitewaterpoloaustralia.com.au
Medal record
Women's water polo
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2000 Sydney Team
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing Team
Bronze medal – third place 2012 London Team
World Championship
Gold medal – first place 1986 Madrid Team
Silver medal – second place 2007 Melbourne Team
Silver medal – second place 2013 Barcelona Team
Bronze medal – third place 1998 Perth Team
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Gwangju Team
World Cup
Gold medal – first place 1984 Irvine
Gold medal – first place 1995 Sydney
Gold medal – first place 2006 Tianjin
Silver medal – second place 1991 Long Beach
Silver medal – second place 1999 Winnipeg
Silver medal – second place 2010 Christchurch
Silver medal – second place 2014 Khanty-Mansiysk
Bronze medal – third place 1979 Merced
Bronze medal – third place 1981 Brisbane
Bronze medal – third place 1983 Sainte-Foy
Bronze medal – third place 1997 Nancy
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Surgut
World League
Silver medal – second place 2007 Montreal
Silver medal – second place 2010 La Jolla
Silver medal – second place 2012 Changshu
Silver medal – second place 2015 Shanghai
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Kirishi
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Santa Cruz
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Kirishi
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Tianjin
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Kunshan
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Shanghai
Commonwealth Championships
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester
Gold medal – first place 2006 Perth
Last updated: 1 May 2020

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.

History

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.

Olympic record

YearGamesPosition
20002000 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))
20042004 Summer Olympics, Athens, Greece4th (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)).
20082008 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)).
20122012 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)).
20162016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil6th (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)

Honours

Results

Olympic Games

Olympic Year Tournament

  • 1996 – 2nd place[1]

World Championship

World Cup

  • 1979 – 3rd place[1]
  • 1980 – 4th place
  • 1981 – 3rd place
  • 1983 – 3rd place
  • 1984 – 1st place
  • 1988 – 5th place
  • 1989 – 5th place
  • 1991 – 2nd place
  • 1993 – 4th place
  • 1995 – 1st place
  • 1997 – 3rd place
  • 1999 – 2nd place
  • 2002 – 6th place
  • 2006 – 1st place
  • 2010 – 2nd place
  • 2014 – 2nd place
  • 2018 – 3rd place

World League

Commonwealth Championship

  • 2002 – 1st place, gold medalist(s) Gold medal
  • 2006 – 1st place, gold medalist(s) Gold medal

Holiday Cup

  • 1998 – 1st place
  • 1999 – 1st place
  • 2000 – 3rd place
  • 2003 – 4th place
  • 2006 – 3rd place
  • 2007 – 5th place

Team

Current squad

Roster for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.[2]

Head coach: Paul Oberman

Former squads

Under-20 team

Australia's women have won two titles at the FINA Junior Water Polo World Championships.[3]

See also

References

Wikinews has related news:
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2019. pp. 56, 57, 67, 78, 83. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  2. ↑ "20th World Aquatics World Championships Women's Water Polo Team Roster AUS" (PDF). Omega Timing. 15 July 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
  3. ↑ Russia after fourth title at FINA World Women's Junior Water Polo Championship Owen Lloyd (Inside the Games), 9 October 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
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