RIO 2016 OLYMPIC WATER POLO
Just as they were in the quarterfinals, the schedule for the women’s water polo semi-final matches have been tweaked slightly to put the defending champion American women into a better television slot.
The American women will play the Hungarians at 4:30PM Rio Time (3:30 U.S. East Coast time, 9:30PM Hungarian time).
The tournament has been a dream run for the Hungarian women after they upset the Australians in the quarter-finals via a 5-3 penalty shootout victory. Hungary placed only 9th at last year’s World Championships, but are now guaranteed at least a chance at the a bronze medal match (if they lose on Wednesday) and at best the gold medal match (if they top the tournament-favored Americans).
The other semi-final between Russia and Italy will now be held at 12:20PM local time, switching places with the match with the Americans. That’s 11:20AM East Coast Time, 5:20PM Italy time, and 6:20PM Moscow time.
That match features the favored Italians, bronze medalists at last year’s World Championships; against Russia, who upended the defending Olympic silver medalists from Spain in the quarterfinals to reach these semi-finals. Spain, who were World Championships as recently at 2013 but have had two straight years of poor showings internationally.
