Norwegian Women's National Football Team / Olympic Games

Kingdom of Norway
Kongeriket Norge

OS record goal scorer :	Ann Kristin Aarønes , Linda Medalen and Marianne Pettersen (4 each)
OS record player:	Bente Nordby (10)
Rank :	5
Balance sheet
14 OS games 9 wins 1 draw 4 losses 26:19 goals
statistics
First OS game Norway 2-2 Brazil Washington, DC ( USA ); July 21, 1996
Biggest OS win Norway 4-0 Japan Washington, DC ( USA ); July 25, 1996
Biggest OS defeat Norway 1: 5 Japan Shanghai ( CHN ); August 12, 2008
successes
Olympic games:
Participation in the finals	3 ( first : 1996 )
Best results	Gold medal ( 2000 )
(Status: February 2016 )

The article contains a detailed account of the Norwegian national soccer team for women at the Summer Olympics . Norway was the first team to interrupt the winning streak of the US team and become Olympic champion in 2000 and is third in the medal table .

The national team at the Olympic Games

Overview

Olympic Games in	Participation until ...	opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
Atlanta 1996	final	Brazil	Bronze medal	Even Pellerud
Sydney 2000	final	United States	gold medal	Per-Mathias Høgmo	The only gold medal for a European team
Athens 2004	not qualified				Not qualified as the third best European team in the 2003 World Cup
Beijing 2008	Quarter finals	Brazil	-	Bjarne Berntsen
London 2012	not qualified				Not qualified due to elimination in the preliminary round of the World Cup
Rio de Janeiro 2016	not qualified				Norway met the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland in qualifying for the last European starting position. The last place was taken with only one win out of 2 defeats.
Tokyo 2020	not qualified				Norway were eliminated from England in the quarter-finals of the 2019 World Cup . Since the British associations had previously agreed to send a joint team to Tokyo, provided England became one of the top three teams at the World Cup and two other European teams made it to the World Cup semi-finals, Norway missed the qualification.

The tournaments

Olympia 1996 in Atlanta

By reaching the World Cup quarter-finals in 1995, the Norwegians qualified for the first women's Olympic football tournament. As reigning world champions, they started with a 2-2 win against Brazil , then won 3-2 in the World Cup final against runner-up world champions Germany and secured group victory with a 4-0 win against Japan . In the semifinals against hosts USA , they took the lead in the 18th minute through Linda Medalen , but could only defend it for just under an hour. Since neither of them managed to score another goal after that, it went into overtime, in which Shannon MacMillan , who had just been substituted four minutes earlier , scored the winning goal for the US girls. In the game for third place against Brazil, Ann Kristin Aarønes secured the bronze medal with two goals. Aarønes was also together with Medalen and the Brazilian Pretinha with four goals each the top goalscorer of the tournament.

Olympia 2000 in Sydney

The Norwegians qualified as the best European team at the 1999 World Cup for the second Olympic tournament . In the first game they met world champions and defending champions USA and lost 2-0. With a 3-1 win against Nigeria and a 2-1 against the People's Republic of China , however, the second place was achieved. Opponents in the semifinals were Germany and thanks to an own goal by Tina Wunderlich the Norwegians won 1-0. In the final, the opening game against the USA was repeated, but this time with the better end for the Northern Europeans, who fell behind in the fifth minute, but won the game 3-2 in extra time, with Dagny Mellgren the Winning goal scored. With the Olympic victory, Per-Mathias Høgmo ended his work as national coach. It was also the last title for the Norwegians so far.

Olympia 2004 in Athens

As the third best European team at the 2003 World Cup , the Norwegians were not qualified for the third Olympic women's football tournament and were therefore unable to defend their title.

2008 Olympics in Beijing

For the tournament in Beijing , the Norwegians qualified as the second best European team at the 2007 World Cup. At the start of the tournament, they won 2-0 with goals in the second and fourth minutes against defending champions USA and thus brought the USA the second of their only two defeats at the Olympic Games. A 1-0 win then followed against New Zealand , which means that the team was already qualified for the knockout round. The 1: 5 defeat against Japan, in which they had taken the lead thanks to Guro Knutsen Mienna, who had already been substituted in the 10th minute , dropped them to second place. In the quarterfinals they then lost 2-1 to vice world champions Brazil.

Olympia 2012 in London

The Norwegians gambled away their participation in the tournament in London through the preliminary round at the 2011 World Cup .

Olympia 2016 in Rio de Janeiro

The three best European teams from the 2015 World Cup will qualify for the tournament in Rio de Janeiro . However, since England , the best European team in the World Cup, is not allowed to start at the Olympic Games , one of the four European teams eliminated in the round of 16, including the Norwegians , can qualify alongside the second and third best European teams from Germany and France . The scheduled tournament will take place in early March in the Netherlands . Opponents of the Norwegians were next to the hosts even Sweden and Switzerland . After a 1-0 defeat against the neighbors, the hosts were defeated 4-1, but lost the last game 2-1 against Switzerland when a win was no longer enough, as the Swedes won the tournament with 7 points won.

statistics

Record against the Olympic champions at the Olympic Games

• USA : 4 games - 2 wins, 2 defeats - 6: 6 goals
• Germany : 2 games - 2 wins - 4: 2 goals

Games

Norway has played 14 games at the Olympic Games so far - half of the maximum possible so far. Of these, nine were won, four lost and one ended in a draw. twice games went into overtime because a winner had to be determined. All were decided by goals and one won and one lost. The Norwegians played once against the hosts, twice against the eventual Olympic champion (1996 in the semi-finals and 2008 in the preliminary round) and three times against the defending champion. The Norwegians played most often against the USA (4 times). Most frequent last opponent was Brazil (twice). A game was the first so far against the respective opponent.

Norway played against teams from all six confederations and also against their champions (11 times), most often against North American champions (4 times). Twice (2000) Norway met the reigning world champion, each winning and losing once.

Most games played goalkeeper Bente Nordby , who was used in the ten games. The most goals (four each) were scored by Ann Kristin Aarønes , Linda Medalen and Marianne Pettersen .

No.	date	Result	opponent	venue	occasion	comment
1	07/21/1996	2: 2	Brazil	Washington, DC ( USA )	Group game	First game against a reigning South American champion
2	07/23/1996	3: 2	Germany	Washington, DC ( USA )	Group game
3	07/25/1996	4-0	Japan	Washington, DC ( USA )	Group game	First game against Japan
4th	07/28/1996	1: 2 a.d.	United States	Athens ( USA )	Semifinals
5	08/02/1996	2-0	Brazil	Athens ( USA )	Bronze game
6th	09/14/2000	0: 2	USA * (TV)	Melbourne ( AUS )	Group game
7th	09/17/2000	3: 1	Nigeria	Canberra ( AUS )	Group game
8th	09/20/2000	2: 1	People's Republic of China	Canberra ( AUS )	Group game
9	09/24/2000	1-0	Germany	Sydney ( AUS )	Semifinals
10	09/28/2000	3: 2 a.d.	USA * (TV)	Sydney ( AUS )	final	First Olympic gold medal 100th game in neutral 105th and last international game by Gro Espeseth Last game under Per-Mathias Høgmo
11	08/06/2008	2-0	USA (TV)	Qinhuangdao ( CHN )	Group game
12	08/09/2008	1-0	New Zealand	Qinhuangdao ( CHN )	Group game
13	08/12/2008	1: 5	Japan	Shanghai ( CHN )	Group game
14th	08/15/2008	1: 2	Brazil	Tianjin ( CHN )	Quarter finals

Note: Teams marked in bold were continental champions at the time of the game, teams marked with "*" were world champions.

Records

• First European gold medalist: 2000
• Ann Kristin Aarønes scored the 50th goal in the Women's Olympic Games

The Norwegian team had their biggest wins and losses at the Olympics only against Japan:

• 4-0 (1996, preliminary round) - first game against Japan, also a 4-0 in the 1999 World Cup preliminary round
• 1: 5 (2008, preliminary round)

Web links

• Women's Olympic Football Tournament - Statistical Kit - Statistics, Facts & Figures 1996 - 2012