The women's water polo tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested between August 16 and August 26 at the Olympic Aquatic Centre in the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. Eight teams qualified for the Games, with Italy defeating the host nation Greece for the gold medal. The United States won the bronze medal.

Format

The eight qualifying teams were split into two groups of four for the preliminary round, which was played in a round-robin format. The top teams in each group advanced directly to the semi-finals, while second and third place teams advanced to the quarter-finals. Classification matches were also played to determine the final ranking for all teams.

Background and qualification

The women's water polo tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics was the second time that the tournament was held at the Olympic Games with the previous tournament being held in 2000. Fifteen teams competed in qualifying for the seven spots. Despite it originally being the winner per continent, the format would only see two continental champions with the United States and Kazakhstan qualifying from their continent. The remaining four spots (Australia got an bye from being the Oceania champions) was then held at the qualifier which was held in Imperia, Italy. The top three teams from the event qualified through to the Olympics Games (Hungary, Italy and Russia) while Canada also got through on the basis of being the replacement for the African team.

Squads

Preliminary round

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

Group A

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Group B

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Final round

7th place match

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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Quarterfinals

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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5th place match

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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Semifinals

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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Bronze medal match

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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Gold medal match

All times are EEST (UTC+3)

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Ranking and statistics

Final ranking

Top goalscorers

Medallist

Awards

The women's all-star team was announced on 29 August 2004.

Sources