Olympic Soccer - Women

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The Olympic Football Tournament for Women was added to the Olympic program in 1996. It is considered by many fans and experts as a "mini Women's World Cup", mainly because senior teams are allowed to play, contrary to what happens in the Men’s category where participation is reserved to U-23 squads and a limited number of veterans per roster. Women's Olympic Soccer has given fans around the world a chance to witness some historic moments in women’s football, such as attendance records for a women’s game, added to other feats.

The tournament has evolved since its inception, especially in the number of participants. Back in 1996, there were only eight teams invited to play in this competition. Nowadays, twelve teams from around the world get the chance to dream about winning Olympic gold medals.

The Olympic Football Tournament competition consists of a round-robin group stage followed by a knockout stage. The participating countries are placed into groups of 4 teams, where each team plays each one another once in the group. A win attracts three points while one point is awarded for a draw. A defeat merits no point.

The two teams that finish at the top of each group, along with the top two third-place finishers progress to the knockout rounds. The knockout rounds feature single-elimination games consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals, and the gold and bronze medal matches.

The Olympic Women's Football competition slots are allocated as follows:

- UEFA: Three places
- CAF: One place
- AFC: Two places (excluding Japan)
- CONMEBOL: One place
- CONCACAF: Two places
- Oceanía: One place

In the qualifying phases, a playoff between the runners-up in the CAF Olympic Qualifiers and the Copa América Femenina runners-up was also scheduled. In terms of the tournament's composition at Tokyo, all 12 teams are drawn into three groups. The two best teams of every group are joined in the knockout stages by the two best-third placed nations in the competition.

Did you know?

The USWNT is the first team in Women's Olympic Football history to win three gold medals thrice in succession (2004,2008, 2012).

In the 2018 edition of the Olympic Games that took place in Brazil, the USWNT failed to reach the semi-final stage for the first time ever. Germany claimed their first Women's Soccer Olympics gold medal by defeating Sweden in the final match, while Canada earned the bronze medal after beating the hosts.