Page 32 - bon-dia-aruba-20211208
P. 32
A32 sports
Diaranson 8 December 2021
US water polo coaches returning for Paris Olympics
(AP) — Right after the “I’m expecting that after the
Summer Olympics, Adam end of the college season
Krikorian was done. Worn 2022 we’ll have almost a full
down by coaching the U.S. roster outside the States,”
women’s water polo team Udovicic said.
through a pandemic, he
thought it might be time Krikorian, 47, played at
to try something new. UCLA and coached the
men’s and women’s teams
Some two months after To- for the Bruins before he was
kyo, long after the glow of a hired as U.S. coach in March
third consecutive gold medal 2009.
had worn off, Krikorian was
still in the same place. Then, With Krikorian in charge, the
as he examined what went U.S. has turned into a domi-
right and wrong during the nant force. After falling 10-9
previous Olympic cycle, ev- to Hungary in group play in
erything began to change. its first loss at the Olympics
since the 2008 final, the U.S.
“As the months went on, I ripped off four straight wins
became more and more pas- by a combined score of 63-
sionate about and excited 26. It has a 174-6 record over
about trying to make those the past five years.
improvements,” Krikorian
told the AP in a phone inter- No team — men or women
view, “to make the experience — has ever won four straight
better for myself and for all water polo titles at the
those around me.” Games. But Krikorian said
that wasn’t a factor in his de-
That’s how he got from the cision to return. The short-
exhaustion he felt after the ened Olympic cycle was part
U.S. routed Spain 14-5 in the of his thought process, but
Tokyo final on Aug. 7 to Tues- the biggest draw at this point
day, when USA Water Polo just might be the chance to
announced Krikorian and lay the groundwork for 2028
men’s coach Dejan Udovicic — and, perhaps likely, the
are staying on through the next U.S. coach.
2024 Olympics.
“My focus will be certainly
The continuity at the top on Paris, but will also be on
— far from a given after the what do we have to do now
challenges in the runup to to help identify and help de-
this year’s Games — is a coup velop the next athletes and
for each program with Paris coaches that are going to be
coming up on the horizon. able to perform at the Olym-
While the women are going pic Games in Los Angeles,”
for an unprecedented fourth Krikorian said.
consecutive title, the U.S.
men are looking to build on Krikorian also plans to spend
a sixth-place finish this year. more time at his Southern
California home with his
“I think there’s a lot of good family during this cycle, an
years ahead of the national allowance granted by USA
team,” Udovicic said. Water Polo to help keep him
in place.
Udovicic, 51, was hired in He likely will follow a similar
2013 after coaching Serbia to plan with his veteran players,
bronze at the London Olym- giving them more time be-
pics. The U.S. stumbled in fore resuming training with
Rio, going 2-3 and finishing the national team.
10th, but it showed signs of
growth in Tokyo. Led by Ben While declining to speculate
Hallock and helped by a for- on who might return in 2024,
tuitous draw, the Americans Krikorian said he is antici-
reached the quarterfinals pating “a decent amount of
before they were eliminated turnover.”
from medal contention with
a 12-8 loss to Spain. “I think the team in Paris
will probably look much dif-
Much of the U.S. ros- ferent, and, if I had to guess,
ter played for club teams will struggle much more
in Europe for the bulk of during this process than the
their training for this year’s last team did,” he said. “And
Olympics, instead of spend- I look forward to that. I look
ing more time together as a forward to being possibly on
national team. It was a depar- the other end of things and
ture from past practice — one trying to redevelop this team
Udovicic plans to continue. and this program.”