| Gender: | women |
| Year: | 2008 |
| Country: | China |
| City: | Beijing |
| Venue: | Ying Tung Natatorium |
| Dates: | 11–21 August 2008 |
| Num Teams: | 8 |
| Confederations: | 4 |
| Competitors: | 103 |
| Champion: | NED |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second: | USA |
| Third: | AUS |
| Fourth: | HUN |
| Matches: | 20 |
| Goals: | 370 |
| Multiple Appearances: | 3-time Olympian(s): 4 |
| Multiple Medalists: | 3-time medalist(s): 2 |
| Top Scorer: | Daniëlle de Bruijn (17 goals in 6 matches) |
| Most Saves: |  Elizabeth Armstrong(49 saves in 5 matches) |
| Top Sprinter: |  Wang Yi(18 sprints won in 5 matches) |
| Previous: | 2004 |
| Next: | 2012 |
The women's water polo tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from 11 August to 21 August at the Ying Tung Natatorium.[1]
Teams from eight nations competed, seeded into two groups for the preliminary round. 20 games were played, 12 of them in the preliminary round (each team played the other teams in the group). Eight games were played in the final round.
The tournament featured eight teams, separated into two groups of four teams.[2] Each team played the other three teams in its pool once in a round-robin format. The first-place team in each pool qualified directly for the semifinal, the second- and third-place teams moved on to the quarterfinal round, and the fourth-place teams played each other in a seventh place game.[3]
The winners of the quarterfinal games moved on to the semifinals to face the top teams from each pool, while the quarterfinal losers played a fifth place classification game. The semifinal winners played in the gold medal game, while the losers played each other for the bronze.[3]
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See main article: List of women's Olympic water polo tournament records and statistics.
See also: National team appearances in the women's Olympic water polo tournament.
| Rank | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 6 | ||
| 7 | ||
| 8 |
See main article: List of players who have appeared in multiple women's Olympic water polo tournaments.
Three-time Olympian(s): 4 players
See main article: List of Olympic medalists in water polo.
Three-time Olympic medalist(s): 2 players
| Rank | Player | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 17 | |
| 2 | 6 | 13 | |
| 3 | 6 | 12 | |
| 5 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 11 | |
| 6 | 6 | 10 | |
| 6 | 10 | ||
| 5 | 10 | ||
| 5 | 10 | ||
| 10 | 6 | 9 | |
| 5 | 9 | ||
| 6 | 9 | ||
| 4 | 9 | ||
| 5 | 9 |
Patrícia Horváth (43 saves)
Elisa Casanova (left-handed, 7 goals) Gao Ao (11 goals)
Bronwen Knox (12 goals) Jessica Steffens (5 goals) Ágnes Valkai (7 goals, 10 sprints won)