| Tourney Name: | 2024 Women's European Water Polo Championship |
| Size: | 350px |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Dates: | 5–13 January |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 1 |
| Cities: | 1 |
| Count: | 6 |
| Matches: | 48 |
| Top Scorer: | Rita Keszthelyi Alina-Ioana Olteanu Belen Vosseberg (21 goals each) |
| Player: | Beatriz Ortiz |
| Goalkeeper: | Laura Aarts |
| Previous: | 2022 Women's European Water Polo Championship |
| Next: | 2026 Women's European Water Polo Championship |
The 2024 Women's European Water Polo Championship was the 20th edition of the tournament. It was held in Eindhoven, Netherlands from 5 to 13 January 2024.[1] It was scheduled to be held in Netanya, Israel, But the competition was taken away from Israel for security reasons after the 2023 Israel–Hamas war commenced.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] This edition was the first one to be played by 16 teams.[7]
The Netherlands won their sixth title, after a finals win over Spain, while Greece captured the bronze medal and qualified for the 2024 Olympics.[8]
The championship was originally going to be held in Tel Aviv, Israel between 7 and 21 October 2023 (although it would still be called the 2024 European Championship).[5] [9] But on 31 March 2023, it was moved to the Israeli city of Netanya and rescheduled for 3 to 16 January 2024 at the Wingate Institute Olympic swimming pool.[10] [7] This decision was made to reduce the travel costs for the participating teams and make sure there was only one stoppage during the season instead of two (due to the 2024 World Aquatics Championships being held in February 2024).
However, after the 2023 Israel–Hamas war broke out, LEN said they would monitor the situation on 12 October.[11] But on 2 November, LEN announced that the tournament would not be hosted in Israel.[3] [12]
After that announcement, Budapest, Eindhoven and Zagreb were reported as possibly interested in hosting the championships.[13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
On 17 November, Eindhoven was announced as the host city for the tournament. The last time Eindhoven hosted the event was in 2012.
During the 2022 European Championships, Israeli media said that the 2024 edition would expand to 16 teams.[18] On 31 March 2023, LEN officially announced the expansion to 16 teams, alongside the format change.[19] [7] [20] [21]
This was the first edition where the teams were sorted into two Divisions, based on the last edition and the qualifiers. The top eight teams made Division 1 and the other eight teams Division 2. Both divisions were split into two groups of four teams. The top-two teams from each group of Division 1 advanced to the quarterfinals, while the other teams met the top-two sides from each group of Division 2 in a play-off round. After that, a knock-out system was used.[22] [23]
See main article: 2024 Women's European Water Polo Championship Qualifiers.
16 teams were able to compete at the main event. They were broken up as follows:
All 12 that participated in 2022 qualified. Of the beneficiaries of the expansion, Bulgaria made their debut. Of the returnees, Czech Republic, Great Britain and Turkey returned after last qualifying in 1997, 2014 and 2018 respectively.
| Host | 13 May 2022 | – | 1 | ||
| 2022 European Championship | 29 August – 10 September | Split | 7 | ||
| Qualifiers | 23–25 June 2023 | Various | 8 |
Similar to 2012, the Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion was used for the entire competition.[25]
| Eindhoven | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion | ||
| Capacity: 2,065[26] | ||
The draw was held on 12 September 2023 in Netanya, Israel.[27]
Division 1
The pots for Division 1 were decided by the rankings of the 2022 European Championship
Division 2
The seeding for Division 2 was decided by who finished first and second in the qualifiers.
The schedule was announced on 24 November 2023.[28]
All times are local (UTC+1).
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Greece qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics as the highest ranked team not yet qualified for the event. Greece, France and Great Britain secured the three remaining European tickets to the 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
| width=40 | Rank | width=180 | Team |
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| width=10px bgcolor=#ccffcc | Qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2024 World Aquatics Championships | |
| Qualified for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships |
| 1 | Rita Keszthelyi | 21 | 44 | 48 | |
| Alina-Ioana Olteanu | 48 | 44 | |||
| Belen Vosseberg | 37 | 57 | |||
| 4 | Kübra Kuş | 20 | 46 | 43 | |
| Ana Milićević | 39 | 51 | |||
| 6 | Maria Bogachenko | 16 | 35 | 46 | |
| Toula Falvey | 28 | 57 | |||
| Krisztina Garda | 27 | 59 | |||
| Monika Sedlaková | 28 | 57 | |||
| 10 | Jelena Butić | 15 | 50 | 30 |
The awards were announced on 13 January 2024.[30]
| Position | Player | |
|---|---|---|
| Best goalkeeper | Laura Aarts | |
| Most Valuable Player | Beatriz Ortiz |