Serbia-born Jovana Sekulic shining on the world stage with United States water polo team
SINGAPORE – Jovana Sekulic may not have the most typical American-sounding name. And while her journey to the United States women's water polo team started in waters far away from the US, she has made the most out of an opportunity.
The only player on the US roster born outside the country, the Serbia-born 22-year-old grew up playing water polo in Belgrade. Today, she is one of the Americans' key players, as she seeks to help them clinch their sixth world title in seven editions at the ongoing World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore.
Sekulic picked up the sport from a very early age in Belgrade where, despite the popularity of the sport in Eastern Europe and the success of the men's national team – who have won three consecutive Olympic gold medals – the women's team have yet to notch their first Olympic appearance.
But before she could even aspire to grow in the sport and represent Serbian women on the biggest stage, the American dream took precedence for her family when she was just 12.
Sekulic said: 'Water polo is huge for men in Serbia, but for women, it's not so popular. But I remember going to the Serbian national team games and I always dreamed of being a big player and competing on the international stage for Serbia. But then my family moved to the United States, and I never really thought that I could be good enough to play for the US team.'
Jovana's father, Goran, moved the Sekulic family to the US in 2014, in search of a better life for Jovana and her two brothers.
They set up base in Pennsylvania, where Sekulic enrolled at Springton Lake Middle School. But the school did not even have a pool, and so water polo took a backseat for a while before her parents, who wanted Sekulic and her brothers to stay active while adjusting to American life found a local club.
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She later joined the Episcopal Academy and there, her water polo career took off. She starred for the team, winning the Eastern Prep Championship three times and the tournament's Most Valuable Player award twice and her prowess in the pool eventually gained her an admission into Princeton University.
In her freshman season in 2022, she earned Rookie of the Year honours from the Collegiate Water Polo Association. In 2023, she helped Princeton advance to the NCAA national semi-finals for the first time in school history.
Those performances led to a try-out for the women's national team, and she has since gone on to establish herself as a regular and represented the US at the Paris Olympics last August.
In Paris, one of her highlights came from meeting the Serbian men's national team.
'I stopped them in the (Olympic village) cafeteria, and I was like 'Hi guys, I just want to tell you that I'm a big fan' and then I just started sobbing,' said Sekulic, who hopes that the women's programme in Serbia can grow to a point where she can face the Serbian women at the Olympics.
On July 13, in the final match of the day at the OCBC Aquatics Centre, Sekulic and the world No. 3 US women are almost certainly through to the quarter-finals after an 11-9 win over Group B opponents and world No. 2 Netherlands. It was sweet revenge for the US who had lost to the Dutch at the bronze-medal playoff in the Paris Olympics and finished outside the medals for the first time.
The US have now recorded two wins out of two and their superior head-to-head record over China and the Netherlands means they have qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners. Both US and Netherlands had started the competition with a win on the first day of competition on July 11.
While the match was an end-to-end, high quality affair in the pool, the attendance at the venue was once again in the low hundreds. Sekulic, played her part as the centre, showing her aggression in defence by being a menace all night to limit the Dutch attackers and was also effective at the other end as she orchestrated play from the middle. She also got on the scoresheet, scoring her team's ninth goal in the third quarter and provided an assist in the win.
Despite her status on the team, Sekulic said she tries not to think about whether she 'belongs'.
'I just show up every day and try my best. All I can do is just show up every day and compete for my spot,' she said. 'I'm really happy to be here with this team and to see every single teammate of mine shine. And that was a really good team win today against the Netherlands. '
In Group B's other match earlier in the day, China recorded a comprehensive 29-9 win over Argentina.
Meanwhile, in Group A, Singapore were defeated 22-7 by New Zealand. While it was their second loss in these Championships, following a 34-2 defeat by Olympic silver medallists and world No. 6 Australia in their first match, there were still some positives.
In their WCH debut in Doha in 2024, they had been thumped 30-4 by the same opponents.
Singapore captain Abielle Yeo said: 'Seeing the scoreline, we've also improved from the last time we played New Zealand in the last World Championships. So definitely, while there are things to improve on, we're very happy with today's results.'
In the other Group A game, Australia made it two wins out of two with a 19-15 victory over Italy.
Silver medallists at the last edition, Hungary, also made it two wins out of two with a 33-13 victory over Japan in Group C, while Greece secured their first win with a 31-7 hammering of Croatia.
In Group D, 11th-ranked Britain recorded a 12-3 victory over world No.18 South Africa, while Olympic champions Spain followed suit in Group D with a 23-6 win over France.
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