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==