Australia women's national water polo team

The Australian national women's water polo team represents Australia in women's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Australian Water Polo Incorporated. It is currently organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group.

History

The Australian 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 Sydney.

Having had an excellent build up to the 2000 Summer Olympic Games at home in Sydney, the team went into the first Olympic tournament at home. They only lost one match to the powerful Dutch side in that historic campaign, on the way to winning the first ever women's Olympic gold medal in front of an ecstatic home crowd.

In an incredible Olympic final, the evenly matched US and Australian 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 Australian team which won the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics was composed of 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.

The Australian women then suffered another lean patch, finishing 7th at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, 4th at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games 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 Olympic Games, the team took the bronze medal after beating Hungary for 3rd place in a penalty shootout.

Olympic record

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)

Honours

• Water polo at the Summer Olympics:
  • Gold medal 2000 Sydney Olympics
  • Bronze medal 2008 Beijing Olympics
  • Bronze medal 2012 London Olympics
• World Championships:
  • Gold medal 1986 Madrid
  • Silver medal 2007 Melbourne
  • Silver medal 2013 Barcelona
  • Bronze medal 1998 Perth
• FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup:
  • 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
• Commonwealth Water Polo Championships:
  • Gold medal England 2002.

Results

Team

Current squad

The following is the Australian roster in the women's water polo tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[1]

Head coach: Greg McFadden

№	Name	Pos.	Height	Weight	Date of birth	2016 club
1	Lea Yanitsas	GK	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)	78 kg (172 lb)	15 March 1989	Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
2	Gemma Beadsworth	CF	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)	78 kg (172 lb)	17 July 1987	Fremantle Marlins
3	Hannah Buckling	CB	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)	75 kg (165 lb)	3 June 1992	Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
4	Holly Lincoln-Smith	CF	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)	82 kg (181 lb)	26 March 1988	Cronulla Sharks
5	Keesja Gofers	D	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)	64 kg (141 lb)	16 March 1990	Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
6	Bronwen Knox (c)	CF	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)	88 kg (194 lb)	16 April 1986	Victorian Tigers
7	Rowena Webster	CB	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)	64 kg (141 lb)	27 December 1987	Victorian Tigers
8	Glencora Ralph	CB	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)	68 kg (150 lb)	8 August 1988	Fremantle Marlins
9	Zoe Arancini	D	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)	70 kg (154 lb)	14 July 1991	Fremantle Marlins
10	Ashleigh Southern	CF	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)	82 kg (181 lb)	22 October 1992	Brisbane Barracudas
11	Isobel Bishop	D	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)	69 kg (152 lb)	8 September 1991	Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
12	Nicola Zagame	D	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)	72 kg (159 lb)	11 August 1990	Cronulla Sharks
13	Kelsey Wakefield	GK	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)	64 kg (141 lb)	1 June 1991	Queensland Breakers

See also

• Australia men's national water polo team

References

Wikinews has related news: Australia women's water polo team into FINA Women's World League Super Finals quarter finals

• HistoFINA Volume VIII (Edition 2004)

External links

• Australian Water Polo Federation