Venue(s) 6 (in 5 host cities) | Dates July 21-August 1 | |
Teams 8 (from 4 confederations) Champions United States (1st title) | ||
The 1996 Summer Olympics—based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States—marked the first time that women would participate in the association football (soccer) tournament. The tournament features 8 women's national teams from four continental confederations. The 8 teams are drawn into two groups of four and each group plays a round-robin tournament (which was held in Miami, Orlando, Birmingham 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), beginning with the semi-finals and culminating with the gold medal match on August 1, 1996.
Contents
Qualification
Since there was no time to hold a qualifying tournament, the eight best teams at the Women's World Cup in 1995 were automatically selected for the Olympic tournament (which meant no teams from Africa or Oceania could take part in this tournament). The only exception was the inclusion of Brazil in place of England (who, under the regulations of the International Olympic Committee are ineligible). The following eight teams qualified for the 1996 Olympics football tournament:
FIFA Fair play award
Top scoring teams
Top qualifiers
Goalscorers
With four goals, Pretinha of Brazil, Ann Kristin Aarønes and Linda Medalen of Norway are the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 53 goals were scored by 33 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.