Chinese women's water polo team tries to narrow gap, strive for medals at LA28, says coach

Chinese women's water polo team will work hard to narrow the gap with top competitors and go all out to win medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, coach Miguel Oca has said.

China finished in eighth place at the 2026 World Aquatics Women's World Cup Finals in Sydney, in which the top eight international teams battle for one of the sport's most prestigious titles from Wednesday through Sunday.

China, which qualified for the finals in Sydney by finishing second in the Division 2 preliminary tournament held in Malta in April, lost 14-8 to the United States in its opening match on Wednesday, suffered a narrow 11-10 defeat to Italy on Friday, and fell 12-8 to Hungary in its final game on Saturday.

"We came from the Division 2 and the target here was to have a contact with the big teams because we've been many months without playing with the big teams," Oca told Xinhua in an interview after the team's match with Hungary. "The target was playing them and to improve and keep on growing."

Oca said the tournament had shown that China still trails the world's top teams.

"But OK. This is our job," he said. "We have wonderful players and we have to work to improve and to get closer and then to compete with them some days."

Oca noted that the Chinese players are strong physically and good at shooting and swimming, but the team needs to improve its speed of play, including fast reaction and playing quickly. Those qualities, he said, are hallmarks of leading teams such as the European powers, the United States and Australia, and will be key areas of improvement for China going forward.

"That's why this tournament is very good for us because then the players can experience this different rhythm of playing. And then now we can work this much better," he said.

Top-ranked Spain will play the United States in the gold medal match on Sunday, while Australia will play Russia for bronze.

Oca has been coach of China for more than a year. He enjoyed a distinguished career both as a player and as a coach. Representing Spain, he won the men's water polo silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and gold four years later in Atlanta. He led the Spanish women's national team to win the Olympic gold medal in 2024, and silver medal in 2012 and 2021.

Looking ahead, Oca said the team will prepare for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games while continuing its pursuit of success at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. "We have two years in front of us and then I'm sure that at some point we are going to compete with the big teams," he said.

"We always think about getting medals in Los Angeles. We know that is not easy because there are many good teams that are fighting for the same," Oca said. "But if we improve and we get the level to compete with them, then we can go there and fight for the medals."