Sydney, Australia, July 27, 2026: China’s women's water polo team will work hard to narrow the gap with top competitors and go all out to win medals at LA28 – and the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 will be a step along that road, coach Miguel Oca told Xinhua News.
China finished eighth at the 2026 World Aquatics Women's World Cup Finals in Sydney last week after losing all three matches - 14-8 to the United States, 11-10 to Italy and 12-8 to Hungary.
Oca said the tournament had shown that China still trailed the world's top teams.
"But OK. This is our job," he said. "We have wonderful players and we have to work to improve and to get closer and then to compete with them some days."
Oca noted that the Chinese players were strong physically and good at shooting and swimming, but the team needed to improve its speed of play, including fast reaction and playing quickly. Those qualities, he said, were hallmarks of leading teams such as the European powers, the United States and Australia, and will be key areas of improvement for China going forward.
"That's why this tournament is very good for us because then the players can experience this different rhythm of playing. And then now we can work this much better," he said.
Looking ahead, Spanish coach Oca said the team would prepare for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games while continuing its pursuit of success at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
"We have two years in front of us and then I'm sure that at some point we are going to compete with the big teams," he said.
The women’s water polo tournament at the 20th Asian Games from September 19 to October 4 features six teams in a round-robin format: China, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.