The U.S. women’s water polo team opens the Paris Olympics as the three-time defending gold medalists, but they’ll face stiff competition and some rivals from Europe in their quest for gold No. 4.

"It's the most stacked Olympics, just competitive-wise, team-wise," Team USA’s Kaleigh Gilchrist told NBC Sports in April. "Everyone's so good and it's a lot more even playing field."

|Despite us winning the last three gold medals, I’ve always felt like it's been very competitive on the women's side for a long time. This year might be the most competitive field we've seen on the women's side,” said U.S. coach Adam Krikorian. "Nearly every single team has a chance to win a medal, and it's tremendously exciting - the parity and the competitiveness - and to see where the women's game has gone."

Teams from around the world agree that this year’s tournament is wide open.

“I expect very close games from the beginning, because if you look at the results from all the tournaments in the previous few years, I think if you repeat those same tournaments a week later, maybe you have different medal winners,” said Netherlands coach Eva Doudesis. "From one day to another you can finish first and then fifth. All the teams know each other so well and there will be no surprises.

"It will be a challenging, demanding tournament, but we’re looking forward to it."

Team USA opens play in Paris against Greece on Saturday morning, one of four games on the opening day slate.

Ten teams will compete in the women's water polo tournament. They'll be split into two groups — Group A and Group B — and will start with a four-game round-robin tournament.

In round-robin play, wins count as three points, penalty shootout wins are two, and penalty shootout losses are one.

At the end of pool play, the top four teams in each group will move on the quarterfinals.

Group A
Australia
Canada
China
Hungary
The Netherlands

Group B
France
Greece
Italy
Spain
United States

In a matchup of two of the best teams in the world, both the Netherlands and Hungary are expected to be medal contenders in Paris. 

The Netherlands qualified for the Olympics after winning the 2023 World Championships, but the quest for a second straight world title ended in a quarterfinal loss to Hungary earlier this year. 

"We are here and we aim high, but staying humble is the key,” Doudesis said. “The world of women’s water polo at the moment is quite close and the difference between the teams is minimal.

"At the top, I think there are seven teams who could win a medal and we are one of them. We'll do our best.”

The Netherlands finished sixth in the Tokyo Olympics thanks in part to Simone van de Kraats, who was the leading goalscorer in the tournament. That was the first time the Netherlands played in the Games since 2008.

Hungary won bronze in Tokyo after finishing fourth in three straight Olympics. The team finished second to the U.S. in both the 2022 and 2024 World Championships. Team captain Rita Keszthelyi was named MVP of this year’s worlds.

Hungary comes into the Olympics following a 10-8 exhibition win over the U.S. last month.

After getting upset by Italy in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Championships, Team USA bounced back to take gold at 2024 Worlds. 

But despite again being the heavy favorites to take gold in Paris, Krikorian said following this year's world championships his team is “more vulnerable than ever.”

If the U.S. wins the final in Paris, it would be the first time a team has won four straight water polo golds.

"I can't say I haven't thought about that, but that's about as far as I go with it,” Krikorian said. "I'm pretty good about staying in the present moment, and as soon as those thoughts come up I'm fairly good about just focusing my attention back to where it should be. And that's just trying to get ready for Greece in the first game.”

The U.S. will open play on Sunday against Greece, the fourth-place finishers at the 2024 World Championships.

Greece is playing in its first Olympics since 2008, when it finished eighth. The team’s only women’s water polo medal came in 2004 when they won silver.

Recently, Greece won bronze at this year’s European Championships. It earned a berth for the Paris Games as the best finisher at worlds that had not yet qualified.

As silver medalists in Tokyo, Spain opens play in Paris looking to finally best the U.S. and win a first Olympic gold.

The Spanish team opens this year’s Games against France, which earned an automatic berth into the Olympics as the host country. France is making its Olympic debut in water polo. The team’s best world championship finish came in 2022 when they finished eighth.

“We feel super good,” said France’s Orsolya "Orsi" Hertzka. “We’re really excited to start in front of our home crowd against Spain, to show how much we’ve progressed over this year-and-a-half that we’ve been working with our new coach. We’re on form and we’re ready to go.”

Spain has finished fifth or better in each of the last four worldwide tournaments, and has finished in the top three at the world championships four times since 2017.

Spain qualified for this year’s Olympics after finishing second at the 2023 World Championships.

Australia comes into this year’s Olympics as the winners of the 2023 Oceania Olympic Qualifier, which earned the Australians a berth into this year’s Games.

Australia is coached by Rebecca "Bec" Rippon, the first time the country's women’s water polo team has been coached by a woman. Rippon, who took over less than a year ago, was on the 2008 Australia team that won Olympic bronze. 

China comes into Paris looking for the team’s first worldwide tournament podium since 2011. The Chinese team placed eighth in the Tokyo Games and seventh in Rio. 

China had its best world championships finish since 2015 this year when it came home 10th. The team qualified for Paris after winning the 2022 Asian Games (which were held in 2023).