Quick Facts Tournament details, Host country ...

Women's water polo
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad

Tournament details
Host country	Japan
City	Tokyo
Venue(s)	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center
Dates	24 July – 7 August 2021
Teams	10 (from 5 confederations)
Competitors	130
Final positions
Champions	United States (3rd title)
Runners-up	Spain
Third place	Hungary
Fourth place	ROC
Tournament statistics
Matches	32
Goals scored	748 (23.38 per match)
Total attendance	0 (0 per match)
Multiple medalists	3-time medalist(s): 2 players
Top scorer(s)	Simone van de Kraats (28 goals in 7 matches)
Most saves	Ashleigh Johnson (80 saves in 7 matches)
Top sprinter(s)	Vanda Vályi (27 sprints won in 7 matches)
MVP	Maddie Musselman
← 2016 2024 →

Close

The women's tournament of water polo at the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo, Japan was played from 24 July to 7 August 2021 at the Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center.^[1] It was the sixth appearance of the women's tournament, which had been held consecutively since 2000 and also was the first time on history that the tournament had 10 teams competing.

On 24 March 2020, the Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2] Because of the pandemic, the games were played behind closed doors.^[3]

The United States won their third consecutive and overall gold medal after a finals win over Spain, while Hungary captured the bronze medal, beating defending bronze medalists Russia.^[4]

The medals for the competition were presented by Samira Asghari, Afghanistan; IOC Member, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Dale Neuburger, United States; FINA Treasurer.

The competition began on 24 July, and matches were held every other day. At each match time, two matches were played simultaneously (two during the preliminary round, two quarterfinals during that round, one main semifinal and one classification semifinal during the semifinal round, and the two classification games on the final day) except for the bronze and gold medal matches.^[9][10][11]

The ten teams were seeded into two groups for a preliminary round and each group was played in a round-robin. The top four teams in each group advanced to the knockout round while the fifth placed teams and those ranked 9th and 10th based on win–loss record then goal average were eliminated. The knockout round began with quarterfinals, with the winners advanced to the semifinals, while the quarterfinal losers play in the fifth to eighth place classification semifinals. The two semifinal winners play in the gold medal match, while the two semifinal losers play in the bronze medal match.^[12]

The draw took place on 21 February 2021 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.^[13][14]

Seeding

The ten teams in the women's tournament were drawn into two groups of five teams. The teams were seeded into five pots.^{[14]: 6:30 [15]}

More information Pot 1, Pot 2 ...

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
United States  Spain	ROC  Australia	Hungary  Netherlands	Canada  China	South Africa  Japan (hosts)

Close

Final draw

The hosts Japan and the reigning Olympic champion the United States were both drawn into Group B.^{[14]: 15:33}

More information Group A, Group B ...

	Group A	Group B
1	Australia	ROC
2	South Africa	China
3	Netherlands	Hungary
4	Spain	United States
5	Canada	Japan

Close

The following 28 referees were selected for the tournament.^{[16]: 275–276 [17]}

24 referees:

4 video assistant referees:

The schedule was announced on 9 March 2021.^[46]

All times are local (UTC+9).

Group A

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	4	3	0	1	71	37	+34	6[lower-alpha 1]	Quarterfinals
2	Australia	4	3	0	1	46	33	+13	6[lower-alpha 1]
3	Netherlands	4	3	0	1	75	41	+34	6[lower-alpha 1]
4	Canada	4	1	0	3	48	39	+9	2
5	South Africa	4	0	0	4	7	97	−90	0

Close

Source: Tokyo 2020 and FINA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
Notes:

1. Spain 2 Pts, +5 GD; Netherlands 2 Pts, −2 GD; Australia 2 Pts, −3 GD. Spain first and after that the head-to head results between Australia and Netherlands (15–12) came into effect.

24 July 2021 (2021-07-24) 15:30 v	Report	Canada	5–8	Australia	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Michael Goldenberg (USA), György Kun (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 1–1, 2–4, 1–2, 1–1
		Eggens 3	Goals	Halligan 3

24 July 2021 (2021-07-24) 18:20 v	Report	South Africa	4–29	Spain	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Asumi Tsuzaki (JPN), Ursula Wengenroth (SUI)
		Score by quarters: 2–5, 1–9, 1–5, 0–10
		Wedderburn 2	Goals	Ruiz 5

---

26 July 2021 (2021-07-26) 18:20 v	Report	Australia	15–12	Netherlands	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Arkadii Voevodin (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 2–5, 5–2, 5–2
		three players 3	Goals	four players 2

26 July 2021 (2021-07-26) 19:50 v	Report	Spain	14–10	Canada	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Georgios Stavridis (GRE), Nenad Periš (CRO)
		Score by quarters: 4–2, 2–2, 3–2, 5–3
		Ortiz 4	Goals	Lemay-Lavoie 3

---

28 July 2021 (2021-07-28) 15:30 v	Report	Canada	21–1	South Africa	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Asumi Tsuzaki (JPN), John Waldow (NZL)
		Score by quarters: 5–1, 4–0, 4–0, 8–0
		Sohi 4	Goals	Moir 1

28 July 2021 (2021-07-28) 19:50 v	Report	Netherlands	14–13	Spain	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Sébastien Dervieux (FRA), Michael Goldenberg (USA)
		Score by quarters: 2–3, 3–2, 3–2, 6–6
		Van de Kraats 6	Goals	A. Espar 4

---

30 July 2021 (2021-07-30) 14:00 v	Report	South Africa	1–33	Netherlands	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Nicola Johnson (AUS), Ursula Wengenroth (SUI)
		Score by quarters: 0–7, 0–9, 1–9, 0–8
		Wedderburn 1	Goals	Keuning 6

30 July 2021 (2021-07-30) 19:50 v	Report	Spain	15–9	Australia	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Sébastien Dervieux (FRA), Arkadii Voevodin (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 4–3, 4–1, 4–2
		Ortiz 5	Goals	Kearns, Webster 2

---

1 August 2021 (2021-08-01) 15:30 v	Report	Netherlands	16–12	Canada	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Alessandro Severo (ITA), Nenad Periš (CRO)
		Score by quarters: 4–4, 4–3, 3–2, 5–3
		Van de Kraats 6	Goals	Christmas 4

1 August 2021 (2021-08-01) 19:50 v	Report	Australia	14–1	South Africa	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Daniel Daners (URU), Jeremy Cheng (SGP)
		Score by quarters: 1–0, 6–1, 4–0, 3–0
		five players 2	Goals	Vaughan 1

Group B

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	4	3	0	1	64	26	+38	6	Quarterfinals
2	Hungary	4	2	1	1	46	43	+3	5[lower-alpha 1]
3	ROC	4	2	1	1	53	61	−8	5[lower-alpha 1]
4	China	4	2	0	2	51	50	+1	4
5	Japan (H)	4	0	0	4	44	78	−34	0

Close

Source: Tokyo 2020 and FINA
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference.
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1. ROC10–10 Hungary

24 July 2021 (2021-07-24) 14:00 v	Report	Japan	4–25	United States	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Germán Moller (ARG), Nicola Johnson (AUS)
		Score by quarters: 3–8, 0–6, 1–7, 0–4
		Koide 2	Goals	Haralabidis, Steffens 5

24 July 2021 (2021-07-24) 19:50 v	Report	China	17–18	ROC	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Marie-Claude Deslières (CAN), Michiel Zwart (NED)
		Score by quarters: 6–5, 4–4, 4–5, 3–4
		Wang X. 4	Goals	Prokofyeva 4

---

26 July 2021 (2021-07-26) 14:00 v	Report	United States	12–7	China	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Alessandro Severo (ITA), Dion Willis (RSA)
		Score by quarters: 4–4, 2–2, 3–0, 3–1
		M. Fischer 3	Goals	Wang, Zhang J. 2

26 July 2021 (2021-07-26) 15:30 v	Report	ROC	10–10	Hungary	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Sébastien Dervieux (FRA), Xevi Buch (ESP)
		Score by quarters: 1–2, 3–5, 3–1, 3–2
		Prokofyeva 4	Goals	Leimeter, Szilágyi 2

---

28 July 2021 (2021-07-28) 14:00 v	Report	Hungary	10–9	United States	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Nenad Periš (CRO), Xevi Buch (ESP)
		Score by quarters: 2–2, 3–3, 1–3, 4–1
		Parkes 3	Goals	Musselman 3

28 July 2021 (2021-07-28) 18:20 v	Report	China	16–11	Japan	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Marie-Claude Deslières (CAN), Viktor Salnichenko (KAZ)
		Score by quarters: 5–2, 4–3, 4–3, 3–3
		Zhang 5	Goals	Arima 3

---

30 July 2021 (2021-07-30) 15:30 v	Report	United States	18–5	ROC	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Alessandro Severo (ITA), Xevi Buch (ESP)
		Score by quarters: 5–1, 4–2, 6–1, 3–1
		Haralabidis, Steffens 4	Goals	Simanovich 2

30 July 2021 (2021-07-30) 18:20 v	Report	Japan	13–17	Hungary	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Vojin Putniković (SRB)
		Score by quarters: 4–3, 3–4, 3–5, 3–5
		Arima, Inaba 4	Goals	Parkes 6

---

1 August 2021 (2021-08-01) 14:00 v	Report	Hungary	9–11	China	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Viktor Salnichenko (KAZ), Frank Ohme (GER)
		Score by quarters: 1–4, 1–3, 2–1, 5–3
		Gurisatti 4	Goals	four players 2

1 August 2021 (2021-08-01) 18:20 v	Report	ROC	20–16	Japan	Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center Referees: Marie-Claude Deslières (CAN), Dion Willis (RSA)
		Score by quarters: 5–5, 7–3, 6–4, 2–4
		Serzhantova 4	Goals	Arima 5

The women's all-star team was announced on 7 August 2021.^[50]

More information Position, Player ...

Position	Player
Goalkeeper	Ashleigh Johnson
Field players	Rebecca Parkes (Centre forward)
	Anni Espar
	Maddie Musselman
	Beatriz Ortiz
	Ekaterina Prokofyeva
	Simone van de Kraats
MVP	Maddie Musselman

Close