Marilia Mimides shoots the ball in the women's water polo quarterfinal match between Canada and Spain. GETTY IMAGES

Spain's women's water polo team knocked out Canada in the quarterfinals at La Defense Arena on Tuesday to join Australia, Netherlands, and the United States in the semifinals.

The Water Polo quarterfinals were played in La Defense Arena on Tuesday where many aquatic athletes have provided evenings of glory and broken records across a variety of swimming and diving categories such as Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh. 

Women have consistently surprised an audience accustomed to exhilarating nights at the games and now it was time for Spain's women's water polo team to impress as they beat Canada by 18 to 8, with four goals from Elena Ruiz.

Dominating from the beginning, the distance at which they have won their rivals has been greater than that of the rest of the quarter-placed: the Netherlands beat Italy by 11–8,  Austria imposed 9–6 on Greece and the USA beat Hungary 5-4.

Elena Ruis Barril and Paula Crespi were the leaders of the Olympic sub-champions' offensive in Tokyo 2020. Headed by Pili Peña, the Spanish go to Paris-2024 big favourites to fight for gold. It is possible: they won silver at the previous Olympic event in Tokyo, and they have not gone badly in the championships outside the Games either. In January they achieved silver at the European Eindhoven and in March the bronze at the World Cup in Doha.

The semi-finals of the Olympic women's water polo tournament will be held on 8 August, and the final on 10 August.

Dorottya Szilagyi of Team Hungary is challenged by Madeline Musselman of Team United States. GETTY IMAGES
Dorottya Szilagyi of Team Hungary is challenged by Madeline Musselman of Team United States. GETTY IMAGES