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Water Polo, Women

Date16 – 23 September 2000
StatusOlympic
LocationSydney International Aquatic Centre, Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales / Ryde Aquatic Leisure Centre, Ryde, New South Wales
Participants78 from 6 countries
FormatRound-robin pools advanced teams to classification matches.

This was the first ever Olympic water polo tournament for women. The last two World Champions had been Italy (1998) and Hungary (1994), although both Italy and the Netherlands had been on the podium both years, Italy also winning the European title in 1995, 1997, and 1999. But Italy was not one of the six teams in Sydney, having placed fourth at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The qualified teams were the host Australians, the top European and American teams from the 1999 World Cup (Netherlands and Canada), the top two from the qualifying tournament (USA and Russia), and the best Asian team from the qualifying tournament (Kazakhstan, which finished sixth).

The round-robin served to eliminate Canada and Kazakhstan, with Australia winning four of five matches and taking first seed into the semi-finals. After the round-robin every match was close and was decided by only one goal. Australia and the United States eliminated Russia and the Netherlands, 7-6 and 6-5, respectively. The final match saw the USA leading 2-1 at the half. With only 13 seconds left in the match, American Brenda Villa scored to tie the match 3-3, but with only 1.3 seconds remaining Australia’s Yvette Higgins scored after a foul and a free throw-in, giving Australia the gold medal, 4-3.

PosNumberTeamNOC
1AustraliaAUSGold1
Goalkeeper1Liz Weekes 2
2Yvette Higgins 3
3Gail Miller 4
4Naomi Castle 5
5Bronwyn Mayer-Smith 6
6Simone Hankin 7
Goalkeeper7Danielle Woodhouse 8
8Kate Hooper 9
9Debbie Watson 10
10Taryn Woods 11
11Bridgette Gusterson 12
12Joanne Fox 13
13Melissa Mills 14
CoachIstván Görgényi
2United StatesUSASilver
Goalkeeper1Bernice Orwig
2Heather Petri
3Ericka Lorenz
4Brenda Villa
5Ellen Estes
6Coralie Simmons
7Mo O'Toole
8Julie Swail-Ertel
9Heather Moody
10Robin Beauregard
Goalkeeper11Nicolle Payne
12Kathy Sheehy
13Courtney Johnson
CoachGuy Baker
3Russian FederationRUSBronze
Goalkeeper1Marina Akobiya
Goalkeeper2Galina Rytova
3Irina Tolkunova
4Yekaterina Anikeyeva
5Svetlana Kuzina-Dreval
6Yelena Tokun
7Mariya Korolyova
8Yelena Smurova
9Tatyana Petrova
10Yuliya Petrova
11Sofya Konukh
12Yekaterina Vasilyeva
13Nataliya Kutuzova
CoachSergey Frolov
4NetherlandsNED
Goalkeeper1Karla Plugge
2Patricia Megens 15
3Edmée Hiemstra
4Carla Quint
5Ingrid Leijendekker
6Hellen Boering
7Karin Kuipers
8Ellen van der Weijden-Bast
9Gillian van den Berg
10Mirjam Overdam
11Marjan op den Velde
12Heleen Peerenboom
13Daniëlle de Bruijn
CoachPeter Metz
5CanadaCAN
Goalkeeper1Josée Marsolais
2Marie-Claude Deslières
3Sandra Lizé
4Sue Gardiner
Goalkeeper5Isabelle Auger
6Marie-Luc Arpin
7Cora Campbell
8Melissa Collins
9Ann Dow
10Jana Salat
11Valérie Dionne
12Waneek Horn-Miller
13Johanne Bégin
CoachDaniel Berthelette
6KazakhstanKAZ16
Goalkeeper1Svetlana Buravova 17
2Larisa Olkhina 18
Goalkeeper3Irina Borodavko 19
4Yuliya Pyryseva 20
5Svetlana Korolyova 21
6Nataliya Galkina 22
7Olga Leshchuk 23
8Yekaterina Gerzanich 24
9Asel Dzhakayeva 25
10Rezeda Aleyeva 26
11Anastasiya Boroda 27
12Nataliya Ignatyeva 28
13Tatyana Gubina 29
CoachSergey Maslyuk

Round-Robin

Date16 – 20 September 2000
FormatRound-robin pool.
PosCompetitorsNOCWinsTiesLossesPointsGoals
1AustraliaAUS401835-20
2United StatesUSA311736-30
3NetherlandsNED302627-26
4Russian FederationRUS212536-29
5CanadaCAN122433-34
6KazakhstanKAZ005023-51
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #116 Sep 13:00AustraliaAUS9 – 2KazakhstanKAZ
Match #216 Sep 18:00CanadaCAN7 – 7Russian FederationRUS
Match #316 Sep 19:15United StatesUSA6 – 4NetherlandsNED
Match #417 Sep 13:00AustraliaAUS6 – 3Russian FederationRUS
Match #517 Sep 18:00CanadaCAN8 – 8United StatesUSA
Match #617 Sep 19:15NetherlandsNED8 – 6KazakhstanKAZ
Match #718 Sep 13:00NetherlandsNED5 – 4AustraliaAUS
Match #818 Sep 18:00United StatesUSA7 – 5Russian FederationRUS
Match #918 Sep 19:15CanadaCAN10 – 3KazakhstanKAZ
Match #1019 Sep 13:00AustraliaAUS7 – 6United StatesUSA
Match #1119 Sep 18:00Russian FederationRUS15 – 6KazakhstanKAZ
Match #1219 Sep 19:15NetherlandsNED7 – 4CanadaCAN
Match #1320 Sep 13:00AustraliaAUS9 – 4CanadaCAN
Match #1420 Sep 18:00Russian FederationRUS6 – 3NetherlandsNED
Match #1520 Sep 19:15United StatesUSA9 – 6KazakhstanKAZ

Semi-Finals

Date22 September 2000
FormatSingle-elimination.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match #122 Sep 13:00AustraliaAUS7 – 6Russian FederationRUS
Match #222 Sep 19:15United StatesUSA6 – 5NetherlandsNED

Final Round

Date22 – 23 September 2000
FormatMedal round.
MatchDate/TimeCompetitorsNOCResultCompetitorsNOC
Match 1/223 Sep 21:15AustraliaAUS4 – 3United StatesUSA
Match 3/423 Sep 20:00Russian FederationRUS4 – 3NetherlandsNED
Match 5/622 Sep 18:00CanadaCAN9 – 8KazakhstanKAZ