Water polo at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

Women's water polo
at the XXX Olympiad

Tournament details
Host country	United Kingdom
Dates	30 July – 9 August
Teams	8 (from 4 confederations)
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	United States (1st title)
Runner-up	Spain
Third place	Australia
Fourth place	Hungary
Tournament statistics
Matches	24
Goals scored	468 (19.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Maggie Steffens (21 goals)
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Water polo at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Tournaments
	men	women
Rosters
	men	women

The women's water polo tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London was held from 30 July to 9 August at the Water Polo Arena.

Teams from eight nations competed in the tournament and have been seeded into two groups for the preliminary round. A total of 24 games were played, 12 of them in the preliminary round.

Format

The tournament featured eight teams, separated into two groups of four teams.^[1] Each team played the other three teams in its pool once in a round-robin format. All eight teams advanced to the quarterfinal stage where they were seeded and played against a team from the other group.^[2]

The winners of the quarterfinal games moved on to the semifinals, while the quarterfinal losers played a series of classification games. The semifinal winners played in the gold medal game, while the losers played each other for the bronze.

Preliminary round

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1).

Group A

Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	3	2	1	0	33	26	+7	5
United States	3	2	1	0	30	28	+2	5
Hungary	3	1	0	2	35	37	−2	2
China	3	0	0	3	22	29	−7	0

30 July 2012 14:10	Report	Spain	11–6	China	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Alan Balfanbayev (KAZ), Cory Williams (NZL)
		Score by quarters: 2–2, 4–2, 4–2, 1–0
		Espar 3	Goals	Ma Huanhuan 3

30 July 2012 19:40	Report	Hungary	13–14	United States	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Brian Littlejohn (GBR), Denis Danelon (BRA)
		Score by quarters: 3–4, 4–4, 2–3, 4–3
		Bujka 4	Goals	Steffens 7

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1 August 2012 14:10	Report	Hungary	11–10	China	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Georgios Stavridis (GRE), Svetlana Dreval (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 1–3, 4–4, 4–3, 2–0
		Szűcs 4	Goals	four players 2

1 August 2012 18:20	Report	Spain	9–9	United States	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Marie Deslieres (CAN), Anton Bervoets (NED)
		Score by quarters: 3–1, 2–2, 1–4, 3–2
		Pareja 4	Goals	Craig 4

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3 August 2012 14:10	Report	Spain	13–11	Hungary	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Massimiliano Caputi (ITA), Svetlana Dreval (RUS)
		Score by quarters: 4–3, 3–2, 3–2, 3–4
		Espar 3	Goals	Antal 4

3 August 2012 19:40	Report	China	6–7	United States	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Daniel Flahive (AUS), Marijo Brguljan (MNE)
		Score by quarters: 1–0, 2–2, 0–3, 3–2
		Sun Yating, Ma Huanhuan 2	Goals	Steffens 3

Group B

Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Australia	3	3	0	0	37	19	+18	6
Russia	3	2	0	1	22	21	+1	4
Italy	3	1	0	2	22	22	0	2
Great Britain	3	0	0	3	14	33	−19	0

30 July 2012 15:30	Report	Italy	8–10	Australia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Steven Rotsart (USA), Gyorgy Juhasz (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 1–2, 3–2, 0–4, 4–2
		Di Mario, Radicchi 2	Goals	Gynther 3

30 July 2012 18:20	Report	Great Britain	6–7	Russia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Marie Deslieres (CAN), Ni Shiwei (CHN)
		Score by quarters: 2–3, 3–2, 0–1, 1–1
		Winstanley-Smith 3	Goals	Beliaeva, Prokofyeva 2

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1 August 2012 15:30	Report	Italy	4–7	Russia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Sergi Sanchez (ESP), German Moller (ARG)
		Score by quarters: 0–1, 1–1, 1–4, 2–1
		Di Mario 2	Goals	Lisunova 3

1 August 2012 19:40	Report	Great Britain	3–16	Australia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Gus Pinker (RSA), Denis Danelon (BRA)
		Score by quarters: 1–3, 1–3, 1–5, 0–5
		Wilcox 2	Goals	Webster 5

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3 August 2012 15:30	Report	Russia	8–11	Australia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Dragan Stampalja (CRO), Marie Deslieres (CAN)
		Score by quarters: 4–6, 1–2, 1–0, 2–3
		Lisunova 3	Goals	Gynther 2

3 August 2012 18:20	Report	Great Britain	5–10	Italy	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: German Moller (ARG), Kazuhiko Makita (JPN)
		Score by quarters: 2–4, 1–2, 1–2, 1–2
		Gibson-Byrne 2	Goals	Emmolo, Di Mario 3

Medal round

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Gold medal match

A1

Spain

9

B4

Great Britain

7

A1

Spain

10

A3

Hungary

9

A3

Hungary

11

B2

Russia

10

A1

Spain

5

A2

United States

8

A2

United States

9

B3

Italy

6

A2

United States (OT)

11

Bronze medal match

B1

Australia

9

A4

China

16(2)

B1

Australia (OT)

13

B1

Australia (PSO)

16(4)

A3

Hungary

11

Quarter-finals

5 August 2012 14:50	Report	Hungary	11–10	Russia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Massimiliano Caputi (ITA), Marijo Mrguljan (MNE)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 4–2, 1–3, 3–2
		four players 2	Goals	Ivanova 4

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5 August 2012 16:10	Report	China	16 (2)–16 (4)	Australia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Georgios Stavridis (GRE), Dragan Stampalija (CRO)
		Score by quarters: 5–5, 3–3, 4–2, 2–4  OT: 2–2
		Ma Huanhuan 4	Goals	Ralph, Zagame 3

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5 August 2012 19:00	Report	United States	9–6	Italy	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Mihajlo Ćirić (SRB)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 3–0, 0–1, 3–2
		Seidemann 3	Goals	Di Mario 3

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5 August 2012 20:20	Report	Spain	9–7	Great Britain	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Cory Williams (NZL), Gus Pinker (RSA)
		Score by quarters: 3–2, 3–0, 2–3, 1–2
		Miranda, Espar 2	Goals	Painter-Snell 3

Semi-finals

7 August 2012 15:30	Report	United States	11–9	Australia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Ulrich Spiegel (GER), Marie Deslieres (CAN)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 3–2, 1–1, 2–3  OT: 2–0
		Steffens 4	Goals	Southern 4

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7 August 2012 19:40	Report	Hungary	9–10	Spain	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Dragan Stampalija (CRO), Massimiliano Caputi (ITA)
		Score by quarters: 1–2, 4–5, 2–2, 2–1
		three players 2	Goals	Espar 4

Bronze medal match

9 August 2012 18:40	Report	Australia	13–11	Hungary	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Adrian Alexandrescu (ROU), Dragan Stampalija (CRO)
		Score by quarters: 2–1, 5–3, 3–4, 1–3  OT: 2–0
		Beadsworth 4	Goals	Keszthelyi 3

Gold medal match

9 August 2012 20:25	Report	United States	8–5	Spain	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Marie Deslieres (CAN), Georgios Stavridis (GRE)
		Score by quarters: 1–1, 4–1, 2–0, 1–3
		Steffens 5	Goals	Pareja 3

Classification

Bracket

	5th–8th place semi-finals				5th–6th place
	Russia	11
	Great Britain	9
					China	16 (OT)
					Russia	15
	Italy	10
	China	14
					7th–8th place
					Italy	11
					Great Britain	7

5th–8th place semi-finals

7 August 2012 14:10	Report	Italy	10–14	China	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Svetlana Dreval (RUS), Anton Bervoets (NED)
		Score by quarters: 2–5, 2–5, 2–2, 4–2
		Di Mario 4	Goals	six players 2

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7 August 2012 18:20	Report	Russia	11–9	Great Britain	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Denis Danelon (BRA), German Moller (ARG)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 1–2, 4–2, 3–2
		Prokofyeva 4	Goals	Wilcox, Painter-Snell 3

7th place game

9 August 2012 14:30	Report	Italy	11–7	Great Britain	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Daniel Flahive (AUS), Gyorgy Juhasz (HUN)
		Score by quarters: 2–3, 4–0, 3–2, 2–2
		Di Mario 4	Goals	McCann, Clayton 2

5th place game

9 August 2012 15:50	Report	China	16–15	Russia	Water Polo Arena, London Referees: Brian Littlejohn (GBR), Steven Rotsart (USA)
		Score by quarters: 3–3, 5–6, 3–2, 3–3  OT: 2–1
		Ma Huanhuan 6	Goals	Fedotova, Antonova 4

Ranking and statistics

Final rankings

Rank	Team
	United States
	Spain
	Australia
4	Hungary
5	China
6	Russia
7	Italy
8	Great Britain

Medallists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Women	United States (USA) Elizabeth Armstrong Heather Petri Melissa Seidemann Brenda Villa Lauren Wenger Maggie Steffens Courtney Mathewson Jessica Steffens Elsie Windes Kelly Rulon Annika Dries Kami Craig Tumuaialii Anae	Spain (ESP) Laura Ester Marta Bach Anna Espar Roser Tarragó Matilde Ortiz Jennifer Pareja Lorena Miranda María del Pilar Peña Andrea Blas Ona Meseguer María García Godoy Laura López Ana Copado	Australia (AUS) Victoria Brown Gemma Beadsworth Sophie Smith Holly Lincoln-Smith Jane Moran Bronwen Knox Rowena Webster Kate Gynther Glencora Ralph Ashleigh Southern Melissa Rippon Nicola Zagame Alicia McCormack

Top goalscorers

Rank	Name	Team	Goals	Shots	%
1	Maggie Steffens	United States	21	27	78%
2	Ma Huanhuan	China	19	53	36%
3	Tania Di Mario	Italy	18	45	40%
4	Anni Espar Llaquet	Spain	15	41	37%
5	Dóra Antal	Hungary	12	32	37%
	Barbara Bujka	Hungary	12	26	46%
	Jennifer Pareja	Spain	12	34	35%
	Ash Southern	Australia	12	32	37%
	Gabriella Szűcs	Hungary	12	32	37%
	Rowie Webster	Australia	12	42	29%
	Nicola Zagame	Australia	12	16	75%

See also

• Water polo at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

References