Twelve teams battled it out for the gold medal in the men's event, where Russia was trying to avenge their defeat by Hungary at the Sydney Olympics. There were eight teams in the women's event where holders Australia were hoping to retain the title.

Men's teams
Group A: Croatia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro and United States.
Group B: Australia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain

Women's teams
Group A: Australia, Greece, Italy and Kazakhstan.
Group B: Canada, Hungary, Russia and United States.

Medalists

Men's medalists

Prelimary round

August 15

• United States def. Croatia (7-6)
• Hungary def. Serbia and Montenegro (6-4)
• Russia def. Kazakhstan (5-2)

17 August

• United States def. Kazakhstan (9-6)
• Serbia and Montenegro def. Russia (4-3)
• Hungary def. Croatia (10-8)

19 August

• Serbia and Montenegro def. Kazakhstan (9-5)
• Hungary def. United States (7-5)
• Croatia def. Russia (9-8)

21 August

• Hungary def. Kazakhstan (14-4)
• Serbia and Montenegro def. Croatia (11-8)
• Russia def. United States (9-7)

23 August

• Croatia def. Kazakhstan (5-4)
• Hungary def. Russia (7-6)
• Serbia and Montenegro def. United States (9-4)

• Australia def. Egypt (14-3)
• Germany def. Greece (5-4)
• Spain def. Italy (5-4)

August 17

• Italy def. Australia (8-4)
• Germany def. Egypt (13-3)
• Greece def. Spain (8-5)

August 19

• Spain def. Australia (8-4)
• Italy def. Germany (10-5)
• Greece def. Egypt (15-4)

August 21

• Italy def. Egypt (13-4)
• Germany def. Spain (11-5)
• Greece def. Australia (10-9)

August 23

• Australia ties Germany (6-6)
• Spain def. Egypt (12-4)
• Greece def. Italy (6-4)

Quarter-finals

• Russia def. Germany (12-5)
• Serbia and Montenegro def. Spain (7-5)

Classification 7th-12th

• Australia def. Kazakhstan (10-5)
• Croatia def. Egypt (12-1)

Semifinals

• Hungary def. Russia (7-5)
• Serbia and Montenegro def. Greece (7-3)

Classification 7th-10th

• United States def. Australia (6-5)
• Italy def. Croatia (11-7)

Classification 11th-12th

• Kazakhstan def. Egypt (15-7)

9th place match

• Australia def. Croatia (8-7)

7th place match

• United States def. Italy (9-8)

5th place match

• Germany def. Spain (6-4)

3rd place match

• Russia def. Greece (6-5)

Finals

• Hungary def. Serbia and Montenegro (8-7)

Women's medalists

Preliminary Round

• Australia def. Italy (6 - 5)
• Greece def. Kazakhstan (8 - 6)

August 18

• Australia def. Kazakhstan (9 - 4)
• Italy def. Greece (7 - 2)

August 20

• ITaly def. Kazakhstan (8 - 6)
• Greece ties. Australia (7 - 7)

• United States def. Hungary (7 - 6)
• Russia def. Canada (8 - 6)

August 18

• Canada def. United States (6 - 5)
• Russia def. Hungary (9 - 8)

August 20

• United States def. Russia (8 - 4)
• Hungary def. Canada (5 - 4)

Quarter-finals August 22

• Greece def. Russia (7 - 4)
• Italy def. Hungary (8 - 5)
• Canada def. Kaz (10 - 4) (Classification 7-8)

Semi-finals August 24

• Italy def. United States (6 - 5)
• Greece def. Australia (6 - 2)
• Russia def. Hungary (12 - 11) (Classification 5-6)

Finals August 26

• Italy def.Greece (10-9)
• United States def. Australia (6-5) (Bronze medal game)

Teams

Men’s Rosters

AUSTRALIA

• Pietro Figlioli, Trent Franklin, Toby Jenkins, Craig Miller, Sam McGegor, Tim Neesham, Aleksandr Osadchuk, Dean Semmens, James Stanton, Rafael Sterk, Nathan Thomas, Thomas Whalan, and Gavin Woods.
• Head Coach: Erkin Shagaev.

CROATIA

• Samir Barač, Damir Burić, Elvis Fatović, Nikola Franković, Igor Hinić, Vjekoslav Kobeščak, Danijel Premus, Dubravko Šimenc, Mile Smodlaka, Ratko Štritof, Frano Vican, Goran Volarević, and Tihomil Vranješ.
• Head Coach: Zoran Roje.

EGYPT

• Ragy Abdel Hady, Karim Abdelmohsen, Mahmoud Ahmed, Ahmed Badr, Shady El Helw, Omar El Sammany, Mohamed Gamaleldin, Sherif Khalil, Bassel Mashhour, Mohamed Mekkawi, Amr Mohamed, Walid Rezk, Hassan Sultan, and Ibrahim Zaher.
• Head Coach: Adel Shamala.

GERMANY

• Steffen Dierolf, Lukasz Kieloch, Tobias Kreuzmann, Soeren Mackeben, Heiko Nossek, Jens Pohlmann, Marc Politze, Thomas Schertwitis, Fabian Schroedter, Alexander Tchigir, Patrick Weissinger, Tim Wollthan, and Michael Zellmer.
• Head Coach: Hagen Stamm.

GREECE

• Christos Afroudakis,Nikolaos Trikoypis ,Georgios Afroudakis, Theodoros Chatzitheodorou, Nikolaos Deligiannis, Theodoros Kalakonas, Konstantinos Loudis, Dimitrios Mazis, Georgios Reppas, Stefanos Santa, Anastasios Schizas, Argyris Theodoropoulos, Ioannis Thomakos, and Antonios Vlontakis.
• Head Coach: Alessandro Campagna.

HUNGARY

• Tibor Benedek, Péter Biros, Rajmund Fodor, István Gergely, Tamás Kásás, Gergely Kiss, Norbert Madaras, Tamás Molnar, Ádám Steinmetz, Barnabás Steinmetz, Zoltán Szécsi, Tamás Varga, and Attila Vári
• Head Coach: Dénes Kemény.

ITALY

• Alberto Angelini, Fabio Bencivenga, Leonardo Binchi, Fabrizio Buonocore, Alessandro Calcaterra, Roberto Calcaterra, Maurizio Felugo, Goran Fiorentini, Marco Gerini, Francesco Postiglione, Bogdan Rath, Carlo Silipo, and Stefano Tempesti.
• Head Coach: Paolo de Crescenzo.

KAZAKHSTAN

• Daniyar Abulgazin, Sergey Drozdov, Alexandr Elke, Alexandr Gaidukov, Sergey Gorovoy, Alexandr Polukhin, Artemiy Sevostyanov, Alexandr Shidlovskiy, Alexandr Shvedov, Yuriy Smolovyy, Igor Zagoruiko, Ivan Zaitsev, and Yevgeniy Zhilyayev.
• Head Coach: Askar Orazalinov.

RUSSIA

• Roman Balashov, Revaz Chomakhidze, Alexander Eryshov, Alexander Fedorov, Sergey Garbuzov, Dmitry Gorshkov, Nikolay Kozlov, Nikolay Maksimov, Andrey Rekechinsky, Dmitry Stratan, Vitaly Yurchik, Marat Zakirov, and Irek Zinnurov.
• Head Coach: Alexander Kabanov.

SPAIN

• Angel Luis Andreo, Daniel Ballart, Javier Garcia, Salvador Gómez, Gabriel Hernandez, Gustavo Marcos, Guillermo Molina, Daniel Moro, Ivan Moro, Sergi Pedrerol, Ivan Perez, Jesus Rollan, and Javier Sanchez Toril.
• Head Coach: Joan Jane.

SERBIA & MONTENEGRO

• Aleksandar Ćirić, Vladimir Gojković, Danilo Ikodinović, Viktor Jelenić, Predrag Jokić, Nikola Kuljaca, Slobodan Nikić, Aleksandar Šapić, Dejan Savić, Denis Sefik, Petar Trbojević, Vanja Udovicic, and Vladimir Vujasinović.
• Head Coach: Nenad Manojlović.

UNITED STATES

• Omar Amr, Tony Azevedo, Ryan Bailey, Layne Beaubien, Brandon Brooks, Genai Kerr, Daniel Klatt, Brett Ormsby, Jeffrey Powers, Christopher Segesman, Jesse Smith, Wolf Wigo, and Adam Wright.
• Head Coach: Ratko Rudic.

Women’s Rosters

AUSTRALIA

• Belinda Brooks, Naomi Castle, Nikita Cuffe, Joanne Fox, Jemma Gbrownlow, Kate Gynther, Kelly Heuchan, Emma Knox, Elise Norwood, Melissa Rippon, Rebecca Rippon, Bronwyn Smith, and Jodie Stuhmcke.
• Head Coach: István Gorgenyi.

CANADA

• Marie Luc Arpin, Johanne Begin, Cora Campbell, Melissa Collins, Andrea Dewar, Valerie Dionne, Ann Dow, Susan Gardiner, Marianne Illing, Whynter Lamarre, Rachel Riddell, Christine Robinson, and Jana Salat.
• Head Coach: Patrick Oaten.

GREECE

• Dimitra Asilian, Georgia Ellinaki, Eftychia Karagianni, Angeliki Karapataki, Stavroula Kozompoli, Georgia Lara, Kyriaki Liosi, Antiopi Melidoni, Antonia Moraiti, Evangelia Moraitidou, Anthoula Mylonaki, Aikaterini Oikonomopoulou, and Antigoni Roumpesi.
• Head Coach:Kyriakos Iosifidis.

HUNGARY

• Rita Dravucz, Anett Gyore, Dora Kisteleki, Aniko Pelle, Ágnes Primász, Mercedes Stieber, Krisztina Szremko, Zsuzsanna Tiba, Andrea Toth, Agnes Valkay, Erzsebet Valkay, Krisztina Zantleitner, and Ildiko Zirighne Sos.
• Head Coach: Tamás Faragó.

ITALY

• Carmela Allucci, Alexandra Araujo, Silvia Bosurgi, Francesca Conti, Tania di Mario, Elena Gigli, Melania Grego, Martina Miceli, Giusy Malato, Maddalena Musumeci, Cinzia Ragusa, Noemi Toth, and Manuela Zanchi.
• Head Coach: Pierluigi Formiconi.

KAZAKHSTAN

• Yekaterina Gariyeva, Marina Gritsenko, Tatyana Gubina, Natalya Ignatyeva, Assel Jakayeva, Svetlana Khapsalis, Alyona Klimenko, Svetlana Koroleva, Natalya Krassilnikova, Larissa Mikhailova, Galina Rytova, Irina Tolkunova, and Anna Zubkova.
• Head Coach: Stanislav Pivovarov.

RUSSIA

• Svetlana Bogdanova, Sofya Konukh, Tatiana Petrova, Ekaterina Salimova, Natalia Shepelina, Ekaterina Shishova, Elena Smurova, Olga Turova, Ekaterina Vassilieva, Valentina Vorontsova, Maria Yaina, Galina Zlotnikova, and Anastassia Zoubkova.
• Head Coach: Alexander Kleymenov.

UNITED STATES

• Robin Beauregard, Margaret Dingeldein, Ellen Estes, Jacqueline Frank, Natalie Golda, Ericka Lorenz, Heather Moody, Thalia Munro, Nicolle Payne, Heather Petri, Kelly Rulon, Amber Stachowski, and Brenda Villa.
• Head Coach: Guy Baker.

See also

• 2004 Men's Water Polo Olympic Qualifier

Match schedule

• BBC match schedule