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The winner of the Gold Medal: Team from Hungary
The winner of the Silver Medal: Team from Serbia and Montenegro (Yugoslavia)
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Team from Russia
"Tamas Kasas scored three goals to help Hungary move within one victory of an eighth Olympic men's water polo gold medal in a 7-5 semifinal win Friday over archrival Russia. Hungary will face Serbia-Montenegro, which downed Greece 7-3. Aleksandar Sapic, the tournament's leading shooter, scored only once against Greece - in the last four minutes - to increase his haul to 16 goals in Athens."
Read more at Hungarians, Serbs Make Water-Polo Final
" Melania Grego scored less than a minute into the second overtime to lead Italy over Greece, 10-9, in the women's water polo gold medal match Thursday.
The United States team beat Australia, 6-5, earlier in the day to win bronze.. Italy and Greece were tied 7-7 at the end of regulation, and both teams scored twice in the first overtime to send the match into an extra three-minute frame. Italy's Tania DiMarco tallied with just nine seconds left in the first OT period to deny Greece a celebration. Grego's game-winner, at 2:04, was the only goal of the second overtime. She scored three times on the day. "I couldn't believe we could lose," Greece's Kyriaki Liosi said. "For sure, this is a huge success, but when you get this high, you want to get gold." Italy's Francesca Conti made eight saves on 17 shots."
Read more at Italy women win water polo gold; U.S. takes bronze
The winner of the Gold Medal: Team from Italy
The winner of the Silver Medal: Team from Greece
The winner of the Bronze Medal: Team from United States
"Revaz Chomakhidze fired three first-half goals Wednesday as Russia overpowered Germany 12-5, setting up an Olympic water polo semifinal against defending champion Hungary.
The Hungarians won a lopsided final over Russia at Sydney 2000, a rematch of the infamous "Blood in the Water" semifinal of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Hungary had a 7-6 win here Monday over the Russians to cap an unbeaten run in preliminaries and gain an automatic spot in Friday's semifinals."
Read more at Russia thrashes Germany in Water Polo
ATHENS, Greece U.S. goalkeeper Jackie Frank dipped under water to think. She resurfaced wondering if the blur of the previous six minutes really happened.
It did.
Canada fired five unanswered goals past Frank in the last 5 1/2 minutes to edge the world champion Americans, 6-5, yesterday in an Olympic water polo shocker.
"Using a strong second half, the United States men's Olympic water polo team won its second straight game Tuesday, 9-6 over Kazahkstan.
The Americans all but wrapped up a spot in the quarterfinals, having opened the Olympics earlier this week with a dramatic 7-6 decision over Croatia.
Wolf Wigo scored twice during a two-minute span of the second period to give the United States a 5-4 halftime lead.
"He is the heart of the team," said American Coach Ratko Rudic. "He is experienced and has a positive attitude.""
Read more at USA Men Remain Unbeaten in Water Polo
"The last time Brenda Villa netted the penultimate, game-leveling goal of an Olympic match, the United States came agonizingly close to a gold medal.
That was the final of the 2000 Games, when Australia responded to Villa's goal -- made inside the last 30 seconds -- with a snap shot from Yvette Higgins 1.7 seconds from time to capture a 4-3 win and the first Olympic women's water polo title.
Villa was back in top Olympic form in Monday's 7-6 win over Hungary, scoring the first two points in the opening three minutes of the tournament to help lift the Americans to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter.
Her four-goal haul included the equalizer at 6-6 in the last quarter, after Hungary had rallied from 4-1 down to a 6-5 lead.
This time attacker Kelly Rulon followed Villa's lead and -- to mark her 20th birthday and Olympic debut -- scored the winning goal."
Read more at Water polo team opens with thriller
"Tony Azevedo whizzed a last-second shot past Croatian goalkeeper Frano Vican to give the American water polo team a 7-6 victory in its tournament opener yesterday.
It was Azevedo's third goal of the game, and the horn went off almost immediately after the ball sailed over Vican's head.
After leading by three goals for most of the second and third quarters, the Americans faced splitting the competition points when Croatian driver Nikola Frankovic tied it, 6-6, with 26 seconds remaining."
Read more at Azevedo shot does trick
"As it was expected, the opening game of the Men' s Olympic Water Polo tournament held no surprises in store.
Egypt, upon its return to the Olympic Games after 36 years, was easy prey for the Australians, who dominated the game by 14-3.
Some experts, at the beginning of the match, may have had the feeling that the match could have finished without a big difference in score.
By the time the Egyptians had realised the level of the game the score had risen to 8-1. At the beginning, the representatives of Africa held the score down to 2-1, the goal having been scored by Ahmed MAHMOUD, but their enthousiasm did not last long. "
Read more at Egypt created no problems to Australia
"Jackie Frank put education ahead of sports, and it cost her an Olympic medal. Frank quit the U.S. water polo team in 1999 to focus on her college degree, studying at Stanford while the United States won a silver medal at Sydney without her. She promised herself it wouldn't happen again.
Frank, 24, is back in goal for the U.S. team - one of the favorites in Athens - giving her a chance to end her second-guessing about skipping Sydney.
At the time, it seemed like the best thing to do: The United States initially failed to qualify for the Sydney Games, so she figured she wasn't missing out.
"We were supposed to qualify at the World Cup, but we didn't," she said. "I'd taken off my freshman year to concentrate on water polo, and I decided to go back to school instead of trying to go through the rest of the qualifying.""
Read more at U.S. Water Polo Goalkeeper Diving In
Aussies pipped by Hungary - Breaking News - http://www.theage.com.au:
"Australia's women's waterpolo team was beaten 5-4 by world champion Hungary in a six-nation tournament.
Australia was always on the back foot, down 2-1 down at the quarter, 3-2 at halftime and trailing 5-3 heading into the last seven minutes before closing the game with a 1-0 quarter.
In a game where 2000 Olympic champion Bronwyn Smith played her 200th game for Australia, the result was not all bad news."
"Australia's women's waterpolo team was beaten 5-4 by world champion Hungary in a six-nation tournament.
Australia was always on the back foot, down 2-1 down at the quarter, 3-2 at halftime and trailing 5-3 heading into the last seven minutes before closing the game with a 1-0 quarter.
In a game where 2000 Olympic champion Bronwyn Smith played her 200th game for Australia, the result was not all bad news."
Read more at Aussies pipped by Hungary.
They took on water at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and sank like a torpedoed ship, finishing fifth in a six-nation tournament that was expected to end with a trip to the medals podium.
Four years, two coaching changes, several bitter retirements, a few key comebacks and a chemistry transplant later, the Canadian women's water polo team has been lifted from the ocean floor and returns buoyant to Athens - faster, stronger, happier and more confident.
"MUCH thought has gone into ensuring Australia's women water polo players keep their swimsuits on at the Athens Olympics.
Four years ago in Sydney, water polo players had their swimsuits literally ripped apart, according to Speedo Australia's marketing director, Tim Lees. And it wasn't by accident.
"They weren't casually being torn," Lees said during the unveiling of the Australian swimsuits for the Athens Olympics today. "It was a strategy of the sport. It was full-on."
Water polo is considered one of the most violent sports on the Olympic program with players being pulled unconscious from the pool not an overly uncommon sight.
Lees said athletes during the Sydney 2000 Games sometimes had their zips pulled down by an opponent but great effort had gone into designing a "bullet-proof" suit for the Australian team which will seek to match the gold medal feat of the Sydney 2000 side.
"We've made the zip so it actually locks in and then we've put velcro over the top of that," Lees said." Read more at FOX SPORTS | Athens Olympics | Aussie, Aussie, Aussie | 'Bullet proof' water polo suits (July 25, 2004).
The Canadian Women's Water Polo team is ranked fourth in the world, but is almost unknown in their home country.
Little-known Canadian women's water polo squad has Olympic medal hopes
The team led by shooter Ann Dow of Montreal and centre Cora Campbell of Calgary is one of Canada's brighter hopes for the Games in Athens. The Canadians are ranked fourth in the world, winning a silver medal at the Pan Am Games last summer and bronze at the 2002 world championships.
The US Men's Water Polo Team beat Australia 10-7 in a match in the lead up to the Athens Olympic Games.
'Despite winning the final quarter 4-2 the Aussie Sharks were unable to come back after poor shooting cost them the second and third quarters in front of 1624 spectators.'
Australia has a follow up game against the US later this week and also will play Hungary and Serbia & Montenegro later in the tournament.
