Like the Canadian women’s Olympic basketball team, the Canadian women’s Olympic water polo team also made it to the Olympic tournament at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris. There was a time when it looked like Canada would not qualify for the Olympics at all in women’s water polo.
At the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, the match for seventh place in the 16-team tournament was of great importance. A win against Italy would have qualified Canada for the Olympics. However, Canada lost the match 18-12 and at that point it looked like Canada would not be going to Paris. But not so fast. Just hours later, South Africa announced that it wanted to withdraw its participation as the African representative. Instead of awarding a spot to the next best African representative (there is no other African team in the top 20), Canada was awarded a spot as the highest-ranked country that had not yet qualified for the Olympics (8th place).
Canada is in Group A with Hungary, Australia, China and the Netherlands. They play Hungary on July 29 at 12:05 MT, China on July 31 at 7:35 MT, Australia on August 2 at 6:00 MT and the Netherlands on August 4 at 10:30 MT. The top four teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals. A quarterfinal spot is certainly possible. Canada’s most important game is against China.
The USA are the favorites for the gold medal. They have won the gold medal at the last three Olympic Games and are the reigning world champions. They are in Group B along with France, Greece, Italy and Spain.
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