Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament
International football competition
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The 1996 Summer Olympics—based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States—marked the first time that women participated in the Olympic association football tournament.[1][2] The tournament featured eight women's national teams from four continental confederations. The teams were drawn into two groups of four and each group played a round-robin tournament (which was held in Miami, Florida, Orlando, Florida, Birmingham, Alabama and Washington, D.C.). At the end of the group stage, the top two teams advanced to the knockout stage (which was held at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia), beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match on August 1, 1996.
| |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | United States |
| Dates | July 21 – August 1 |
| Teams | 8 (from 4 confederations) |
| Venue | 5 (in 5 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  United States (1st title) |
| Runners-up |  China |
| Third place |  Norway |
| Fourth place |  Brazil |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 16 |
| Goals scored | 53 (3.31 per match) |
| Attendance | 691,762 (43,235 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Pretinha Ann Kristin Aarønes Linda Medalen (4 goals each) |
| Fair play award | United States |
2000 → | |
The United States became the inaugural champion after a 2–1 victory against China in the gold medal game.[3]
Competition schedule
| G | Group stage | ½ | Semifinals | B | 3rd place play-off | F | Final |
| Sun 21 | Mon 22 | Tue 23 | Wed 24 | Thu 25 | Fri 26 | Sat 27 | Sun 28 | Mon 29 | Tue 30 | Wed 31 | Thu 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | G | G | ½ | B | F | |||||||
Qualification
The qualification system for the inaugural women's football tournament was based on the results of the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. Seven best teams and the host nation were qualified for the tournament. As the third-ranked United States team was already qualified as the host, its spot was passed down to the eighth-ranked team, Japan. England was ranked seventh, but due to it not being an IOC member, its spot was passed down to the ninth-ranked Brazil.[4]
Venues
The tournament was held in five stadiums across five cities:
| Athens, Georgia | Birmingham, Alabama | Miami, Florida | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanford Stadium | Legion Field | Orange Bowl | ||||
| Capacity: 86,100 | Capacity: 81,700 | Capacity: 74,476 | ||||
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 |
 | ||||
| Orlando, Florida | Washington, D.C. | |||||
| Citrus Bowl | Robert F. Kennedy Stadium | |||||
| Capacity: 65,000 | Capacity: 56,500 | |||||
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Squads
Match officials
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Group stage
Group E
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 7 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | United States (H) |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 7 | |
| 3 |  Sweden |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 | |
| 4 |  Denmark |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 0 |
| United States | 3–0 | Denmark |
|---|---|---|
Venturini  37'Hamm 41'Milbrett 49' |
Report (FIFA) |
| United States | 2–1 | Sweden |
|---|---|---|
| Venturini 15' MacMillan 62' |
Report (FIFA) | Overbeck  64' (o.g.) |
| Denmark | 1–5 | China |
|---|---|---|
| Madsen 55' |
Report (FIFA) | Shi Guihong 10' Liu Ailing 49'Sun Qingmei 29', 59'Fan Yunjie 36' |
Group F
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 7 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | Brazil |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 5 | |
| 3 |  Germany |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 |  Japan |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | −7 | 0 |
| Brazil | 2–0 | Japan |
|---|---|---|
| Kátia 68' Pretinha 78' |
Report (FIFA) |
| Brazil | 1–1 | Germany |
|---|---|---|
| Sissi 53' |
Report (FIFA) | Wunderlich 4' |
Knockout stage
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| July 28 – Athens, GA | ||||||
| China | 3 | |||||
| August 1 – Athens, GA | ||||||
| Brazil | 2 | |||||
| China | 1 | |||||
| July 28 – Athens, GA | ||||||
| United States | 2 | |||||
| Norway | 1 | |||||
| United States (AET) | 2 | |||||
| Third place | ||||||
| August 1 – Athens, GA | ||||||
| Brazil | 0 | |||||
| Norway | 2 | |||||
Semi-finals
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Statistics
Goalscorers
There were 53 goals scored in 16 matches, for an average of 3.31 goals per match. Brazil's Pretinha and Norway's Ann Kristin Aarønes and Linda Medalen finished as the top scorers of the tournament, with each scoring four goals.
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
Yumi Tomei (against Germany)
Carla Overbeck (against Sweden)
Source: FIFA[17]
Assists
4 assists
2 assists
1 assist
Source: FIFA[17]
FIFA Fair Play Award
- Winner: United States
The United States won the FIFA Fair Play Award, given to the team with the best record of fair play during the tournament.[17]
Tournament ranking
Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E | United States (H) |
5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 3 | +6 | 13 | Gold medal |
| 2 | E | China |
5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 5 | +6 | 10 | Silver medal |
| 3 | F | Norway |
5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 6 | +6 | 10 | Bronze medal |
| 4 | F | Brazil |
5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | −1 | 5 | Fourth place |
| 5 | F | Germany |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 4 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 6 | E | Sweden |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 | |
| 7 | F | Japan |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 9 | −7 | 0 | |
| 8 | E | Denmark |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 0 |