The women's water polo tournament at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships was held from 11 to 23 July 2025. This was the 18th time that the women's water polo tournament has been played since the first edition in 1986. United States are the defending champions, having beaten Hungary in Doha 2024.
Greece won their second title by defeating Hungary in the final.
Qualification
Qualification took place between January 2024 and April 2025, with a mix of international competitions organised by World Aquatics and continental championships held by the regional bodies acting as qualification. Overall, 35 countries took part in qualification. The slot allocation was as follows:
Host nation: 1 slot 2024 Summer Olympics: 3 slots 2025 World Cup: 3 slots 2025 Asian Championship: 3 slots 2024 Pan American Championship: 2 slots 2024 European Championship: 3 slots African selection: 1 slot Oceanian selection: 1 slot
Of the 16 countries that qualified, 13 took part in 2024. Croatia will make their debut at the championship, while Argentina and Japan returns after a one edition absence. Regarding the non qualifiers, Kazakhstan failed to qualify, marking Kazakhstan's first non-qualification since 2005. Having taken part in 2024, Brazil failed to qualify. Surprisingly, 2024 Olympics participants, Canada, didn't enter the 2024 Pan American Championship and thus failed to qualify for the first time ever.
The highest ranked team that failed to qualify was Canada, ranked 8th, while hosts Singapore are the lowest ranked team participating, ranked 22nd.
EventDatesHostsQuotaQualifier(s)Host nation 1 2024 Summer Olympics 27 July – 10 August 2024 Paris 3 2025 World Cup 14 December 2024 – 20 April 2025 Chengdu 3 2025 Asian Championship 25 February – 2 March 2025 Zhaoqing 2 2024 Pan American Championship 20–25 November 2024 Ibagué 2 2024 European Championship 5–13 January 2024 Eindhoven 3 African selection 1 Oceanian selection 1 Total 16
Summary of qualified teams TeamQualification methodDate of qualificationAppearance(s)Previous best performance Host nation 2nd 2024 2 (2024) 22 2024 Summer Olympics 18th 1986 2024 18 (1986) 6 14th 1998 13 (2013) 1 18th 1986 18 (1991, 2023) 2 2024 Pan American Championship 3rd 2022 2023 1 Twelfth place (2022) 21 18th 1986 2024 18 (Eight times) 3 2025 Asian Championship 11th 2005 3 (2011) 9 7th 2001 20231 (2001, 2003) 14 2025 World Cup 15th 1998 2024 15 (2011) 5 18th 1986 18 (1994, 2005) 4 16th 1994 16 (1998, 2001) 7 2024 European Championship 1st Debut 16 9th 1991 2024 4 (2022) 10 5th 1986 2 (1986) 11 Oceanian Selection 16th 1991 12 (1991) 15 African selection 10th 2009 10 Twelfth place (2023) 19
Final draw The Final draw was held at 17:00 CET on 7 May 2025 at the World Aquatics' interim headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. The draw was hosted by sports presenter Edit Szalay. Water polo players, Laura Ester and Filip Filipović, alongside World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam and Singaporean Olympian Mark Chay, were the guests who assisted with the draw. The draw started with, in order, pots 4, 3, 2 and 1 being drawn, with each team selected then allocated into the first available group alphabetically. The position for the team within the group would then be drawn (for the purpose of the schedule). There were no draw restrictions.
Seeding The seeding was announced on 6 May 2025, a day before the draw. Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Draw + Group A TeamA1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B TeamB1 B2 B3 B4 + Group C TeamC1 C2 C3 C4 + Group D TeamD1 D2 D3 D4
Referees On 26 April 2025, the following referees were announced as officiating the championship.
Region Country Referees Africa Yasser Mehalhel Dasch Barber Americas Germán Moller Marcella Braga Evan Andrews Jennifer McCall Scott Voltz Asia Zhang Liang Chisato Kurosaki
Region Country RefereesAsia Wu Zhekang Europe Andrej Franulović Aurély Blanchard Frank Ohme Maxim Gerasimov Georgios Stavridis Tamás Kovács-Csatlós Alessia Ferrari Stanko Ivanovski
Region Country Referees Europe Michiel Zwart Mihai Balanescu Ivan Raković Boris Margeta David Gómez Marta Cabanas Oceania Fiona Haigh Nicholas Hodgers Megan Perry
Preliminary round The schedule was announced on 26 May 2025.
All times are local (UTC+8).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage Bracket Championship bracket
5th place bracket
9th place bracket
13th place bracket
Playoffs
Quarterfinals
13–16th place semifinals
9–12th place semifinals
5–8th place semifinals
Semifinals
15th place game
13th place game
Eleventh place game
Ninth place game
Seventh place game
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final ranking
RankTeam45678910111213141516
2025 Women's Water Polo World Champions GreeceSecond title
Statistics and awards Top goalscorers +RankNameGoalsTop scorersShots 1 Foteini Tricha 25 38 66 2 Yumi Arima 23 52 44 3 Chiara Ranalli 21 29 72 4 Agnese Cocchiere 20 38 535 Rita Keszthelyi19 32 59 Morgan McDowall 31 617 Roberta Bianconi18 47 38 Lieke Rogge 36 50 Lily Turner 40 45 Alice Williams 34 53
Awards The awards were announced on 23 July 2025.
All-star team Goalkeeper Ioanna StamatopoulouField player Yumi Arima Emily Ausmus Agnese Cocchiere Rita Keszthelyi Foteini Tricha Morgan McDowallOther awards Most Valuable Player Rita Keszthelyi Best Goalkeeper Ioanna Stamatopoulou
Notes
References
External links
Official website FINA website Omega timing total-waterpolo.com