Eight teams competed in the women's football tournament at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. In addition to the host nation, the United States, seven other teams qualified for the tournament based on the results from the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

Method

Unlike the men's competition, there was no fixed slot allocation for the women's tournament. Instead, the

would be used as the preliminary competition to qualify teams for the inaugural women's Olympic football tournament, which featured eight teams. The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

automatically qualified for the tournament as hosts, leaving seven spots to be determined by the Women's World Cup. Teams were ranked based on their results in the tournament, with the top seven teams in the ranking qualifying for the Olympics (excluding the United States and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, a non-

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

member).

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup

Qualification

Twelve teams qualified for the

in Sweden based on a fixed slot allocation.

Group stage

Ranking of third-placed teams

Knockout stage

Ranking of teams

Teams were ranked by the round/place which they reached, and then by points, goal difference and goals scored. Teams eliminated in the quarter-finals are ranked by their quarter-final goal differential. Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Qualified teams

Breakdown by confederation

No teams from Africa ( CAF) or Oceania ( OFC) managed to qualify for the Olympic tournament.

References

External links

Olympic Football Tournaments Atlanta 1996 – Women
FIFA.com {{Football at the Summer Olympics * Qualification