Beach volleyball at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament
The Women's beach volleyball event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, was held at the Olympic Beach Volleyball Centre located at the Faliro Coastal Zone Olympic Complex. The gold medal went to Kerri Walsh and Misty May who had a perfect record in the tournament, losing not a single set.
The reigning champions from the 2000 Olympics, Natalie Cook and Kerri Ann Pottharst, both had new partners for Athens and coincidentally met at the [|last sixteen stage] where Cook's team took the honours. Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede repeated their 2000 Olympic result, taking silver.
Medalists
Pool play
The 24 competing teams were split equally into six pools of four, and each team played each of the other teams in their pool a best of three set match.The teams in each pool were ranked first through fourth based on the number of matches won, W. In the event of a two-way tie, the winning team in the head-to-head match finished ahead. In a three-team tie, the total number of points each team won and lost during all matches involving only the three tied teams were added up, and the bottom-ranked team of the three was decided by the points for to points against ratio; the other two teams were then ranked according to the outcome of the head-to-head match. The top two teams from each pool and the four best third placed teams, set ratio SF/SA; and third progressed through to the round of sixteen.
Two points were awarded for each match win and one point was given for each loss.
In individual matches, all winners are shown in bold.
In group tables, advancing teams are highlighted.
Pool A
August 15August 17
August 19
Pool B
August 15August 17
August 19
Pool C
August 15August 17
August 19
Pool D
August 14August 16
August 18
Pool E
August 14August 16
August 18
Pool F
August 14August 16
August 18
Playoffs
Round of 16
August 20August 21
Quarter-Finals
August 22Semi-Finals
August 23Bronze medal match
August 24Gold Medal match
August 24Final ranking
| RANK | ATHLETE NAMES | COUNTRY | SEED |
| Kerri Walsh and Misty May | 1 | ||
| Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar | 2 | ||
| Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs | 4 | ||
| 4. | Natalie Cook and Nicole Sanderson | 5 | |
| 5. | Ana Paula Connelly and Sandra Pires | 3 | |
| 5. | Okka Rau and Stephanie Pohl | 8 | |
| 5. | Daniela Gattelli and Lucilla Perrotta | 14 | |
| 5. | Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin | 16 | |
| 9. | Vasso Karadassiou and Effrosyni Sfyri | 6 | |
| 9. | Tian Jia and Wang Fei | 7 | |
| 9. | Susanne Lahme and Danja Müsch | 10 | |
| 9. | Dalixia Fernández and Tamara Larrea | 11 | |
| 9. | Eva Celbová and Sona Nováková | 12 | |
| 9. | Vassiliki Arvaniti and Efthalia Koutroumanidou | 15 | |
| 9. | Summer Lochowicz and Kerri Pottharst | 18 | |
| 9. | Tzvetelina Yanchulova and Petia Yanchulova | 20 | |
| 17. | Kathrine Maaseide and Susanne Glesnes | 21 | |
| 17. | Ryoko Tokuno and Chiaki Kusuhara | 24 | |
| 19. | Nicole Schnyder and Simone Kuhn | 9 | |
| 19. | Rebekka Kadijk and Marrit Leenstra | 13 | |
| 19. | Wang Lu and You Wenhui | 17 | |
| 19. | Mayra García and Hilda Gaxiola | 19 | |
| 19. | Nila Håkedal and Ingrid Tørlen | 22 | |
| 19. | Leigh Ann Naidoo and Julia Willand | 23 |