Australia women's national water polo team

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.

Australia
FINA codeAUS
Nickname(s)Stingers
AssociationWater Polo Australia
ConfederationOSA (Oceania)
Head coachPredrag Mihailović
Asst coachBec Rippon
CaptainRowena Webster
FINA ranking (since 2008)
Current7 (as of February 2020)
Highest2 (2010)
Lowest7 (2017, 2018)
Olympic Games
Appearances5 (first in 2000)
Best result (2000)
World Championship
Appearances14 (first in 1986)
Best result (1986)
World Cup
Appearances17 (first in 1979)
Best result (1984, 1995, 2006)
World League
Appearances16 (first in 2004)
Best result (2007, 2010, 2012, 2015)
Commonwealth Championship
Appearances2 (first in 2002)
Best result (2002, 2006)
Media
Websitewaterpoloaustralia.com.au
Medal record
Women's water polo
Olympic Games
2000 Sydney Team
2008 Beijing Team
2012 London Team
World Championship
1986 Madrid Team
2007 Melbourne Team
2013 Barcelona Team
1998 Perth Team
2019 Gwangju Team
World Cup
1984 Irvine
1995 Sydney
2006 Tianjin
1991 Long Beach
1999 Winnipeg
2010 Christchurch
2014 Khanty-Mansiysk
1979 Merced
1981 Brisbane
1983 Sainte-Foy
1997 Nancy
2018 Surgut
World League
2007 Montreal
2010 La Jolla
2012 Changshu
2015 Shanghai
2005 Kirishi
2008 Santa Cruz
2009 Kirishi
2011 Tianjin
2014 Kunshan
2016 Shanghai
Commonwealth Championships
2002 Manchester
2006 Perth
Last updated: 1 May 2020

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
  • World Championships:


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 – Gold medal
  • 2006 – Gold medal
  • 2014 – Did not participate

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

Team

Current squad

The following is the Australian roster in the women's water polo tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics.[2]

Head coach: Greg McFadden

№ Name Pos. Height Weight Date of birth 2016 club
1Lea YanitsasGK1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)78 kg (172 lb)15 March 1989 Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
2Gemma BeadsworthCF1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)78 kg (172 lb)17 July 1987 Fremantle Marlins
3Hannah BucklingCB1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)75 kg (165 lb)3 June 1992 Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
4Holly Lincoln-SmithCF1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)82 kg (181 lb)26 March 1988 Cronulla Sharks
5Keesja GofersD1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)64 kg (141 lb)16 March 1990 Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
6Bronwen Knox (c)CF1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)88 kg (194 lb)16 April 1986 Victorian Tigers
7Rowena WebsterCB1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)64 kg (141 lb)27 December 1987 Victorian Tigers
8Glencora RalphCB1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)68 kg (150 lb)8 August 1988 Fremantle Marlins
9Zoe AranciniD1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)70 kg (154 lb)14 July 1991 Fremantle Marlins
10Ashleigh SouthernCF1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)82 kg (181 lb)22 October 1992 Brisbane Barracudas
11Isobel BishopD1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)69 kg (152 lb)8 September 1991 Sydney Uni Water Polo Club
12Nicola ZagameD1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)72 kg (159 lb)11 August 1990 Cronulla Sharks
13Kelsey WakefieldGK1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)64 kg (141 lb)1 June 1991 Queensland Breakers

Squads

See also

References
  1. "HistoFINA – Water polo medalists and statistics – Download" (PDF). fina.org. FINA. September 2017. pp. 54, 55, 64, 74. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 May 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. "Sydney golden girls help announce Rio women's water polo team". Australian Olympic Committee. 20 June 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  • HistoFINA Volume VIII (Edition 2004)
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