Water polo Canada's first Pan American Games were held in Toronto

>> Frank: Welcome to this podcast Water Photoo Expert Talk. Get the insides o. And you already mention that you are also joining six times, the World Championship and Pan American Games also several times. maybe you can give us some more information about these kind of Pan American Games because we already have or I have the discussion already with some men players from the U.S. saying okay, this is at least for the U.S. north America, really a big thing and a big tournament and big achievement. When you made it to the medal round, what was your memories from the Pan American Games?

>> Speaker B: Yeah, my first Pan American Games were held in Toronto. So that was super cool to be the host country and to have my family being able there to like watch and it's really like a little taste of the Olympics because you got obviously the whole Pan America is all playing every single sport. We have major games like operations so everybody's and from every sport is wearing the same uniform. And that's such a cool thing to experience for the first time that you're not just wearing like your water pololo Canada T shirt, you're like I'm wearing my teen Canada outfit and every other athlete like all 500 of us plus staff, like we're all wearing the same athletes and we're all wearing the same uniform and we're all here for the same purpose. So that was a really surreal moment. And walking out during opening ceremonies to at home was really cool. But that tournament is always super fun. We have so many games in such like a short amount of time. Like it's these last Pan Am games we had five, five games in five days and we played all of our games at 8am so an insane experience. Like I think we know that water pole is a difficult sport and it's hard to play World championships to be performing for like 10 days straight, but to be performing five days straight like before you can even like normal people are even having a cup of coffee like that was the whole other thing. And but yeah it's so cool like being able to play in front of so many different countries and having like our own mini Olympics. I guess like not very many other sports get that experience. Like in Europe you guys have Europeans, but it's just water polo. So we're lucky to have that where it's like a multi sport tournament.

>> Frank: Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like a little bit, little bit bigger than really the, the European Championship.

>> Speaker B: Oh for sure. It's like an Olympic game and like we're in a village. We have a cafeteria. you know, there's transport with like, just like the Olympic Village. There's the Olympic or there's the Pan Am village, transport and everything. So it's like a huge multi, game operation.

Are there any plans to join the Los Angeles Olympics in three years

>> Frank: Okay, so now you have also the experience from Paris last year. So now you can maybe a little bit better compare both with each other. So what was your, let's say, memories from Paris last year?

>> Speaker B: I mean comparing the two, they operate essentially the same, obviously on very different scales. Like the Olympics is much bigger than the Pan American Games. but yeah, the Paris was an amazing experience, like within the village. And as an athlete, at least because we do have the Pan End Games, it's not something that's too foreign for us. Like we understand how operations happen in the village and how we have to go in, in and out of certain venues. But, having my family there and also playing past the group stage at that venue where we had like, I don't know, like I can't even remember how many people were seated at the, that arena. that's how many people there were. There were so many people. but yeah, being able to play for more than like 2,000 spectators, was something that I will never forget for sure.

>> Frank: So. And are there any plans to join also Los Angeles then in three years?

>> Speaker B: Right now I'm still a very much an active member of the senior national team. yeah, so it's, it's definitely in the cards.

>> Frank: Who never knows? no, really not something which is a, good, let's say plannable. Is that the right word? Yeah. So it's not really then the best thing to plan. if somebody is joining some Olympic Games, which is so far away, many things can happen in the meantime after.

>> Speaker B: A certain point in your career, it's really hard to plan for those like four years. And I think also after like the COVID Olympics and then Paris being so close to each other, like those two cycles were a lot for a lot of athletes. So thinking about LA is it's not that it's so far away that it's hard to think of. But after those two cycles it was like. It's a difficult transition.

Makes me thinking is uh, that so many woman, uh,

>> Frank: Makes me thinking is that so many woman, or young, women also Listen to the podcast, when you say, okay, I have, let's say two, three things, in terms of advice for young athletes. So are there any things you can say? Okay, in the Younger age, these two, three things are the most important ones.

>> Speaker B: yeah, I think for me, I would definitely tell everybody to be resilient. And that's more like, it's a really short way to put it, but I think like if I look back on my career, you know, people told me I wasn't tall enough, I wasn't good enough or anything else really. Like there are always people who are non believers in what you believe yourself to be able to do and hard work will always prove them wrong. So sometimes it can be really difficult to hear what people have to say. But if you're resilient, anything can happen. And I also think with that I would say like to always look at the silver lining. like for me in my career I have played a lot of games, I've been able to go to every single tournament. But I didn't make the Tokyo Olympic roster. And that was a huge shock for me and for my career. And looking back I can definitely see the silver lining. And even while it was happening I knew that there was a silver lining, but there was a reason that this was happening. And I could work past it and I could push past it and really reach a whole other. And I reached a whole other level that I never knew was possible in terms of my performance. So sometimes these roadblocks are put in our path for a reason and how we choose to react to them can really change the outcome of our future. So those are the two things that I would recommend to younger people.

>> Frank: Yes. Which is interesting because in the last podcast, ah, also somehow not the same but the feedback of this kind of aner question was there is always some light in the dark at the end of the tunnel. So when you have difficult situations in your career, as you mentioned, you're not making it to the roster, for a specific tournament, for example, all ah, this might happen due to whatever reasons and you have to deal with it. And not only seeing the negative points of view, all the negative points, but also saying okay, for a specific reason this might happen right now and I have to deal with it and I have to think positive also during this hard time at this moment, for example. So it goes somehow in the same direction.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, I mean for sure. Like I do believe that these things happen for a reason, whether or not you agree with them. Like for me I don't think I'll ever agree with what happened in Tokyo, but I still use it. I still decided how I was going to react to it. That was something that I could control and I think that played a huge role into where I am today and the career accomplishments that I made after Tokyo, which surpassed anything that I did before in my opinion. So yeah, taking control of that narrative.

>> Frank: okay.

>> Speaker B: Yeah.

Are there any plans after your active career to become a full time water polo coach

>> Frank: And you already mentioned that you're also going in the coaching direction a little bit bit more if I understand it correctly. So are there any plans after your active career to be a full size, full time coach?

>> Speaker B: I'm not sure. I did take a little dip into full time coaching. I coached at the University of Michigan in 2022 and yeah, that was a really bigh shock for me. You know as an athlete you are thinking about water polo a lot. but when you're not at the pool or if you're not in the gym or you're not fueling yourself, you know, you take rests. But in that position I really realized like wow, coaches are thinking about water polo actually non stop. Like this is not a job that you can just go okay, yeah, I'm on the pool deck, I'm here from like 8 to 5 and this is when I'm doing all my practice plans or things like this. Like it's really a full time job. Especially in the NCA when you're coaching young athletes who are also in like a really transitional position, point in their life, they're leaving home for the first time, you know, they're studying a really difficult topic or they're going through normal life challenges. So also having that aspect of being a support system for these athletes is a full time job. So in that sense I don't think that coaching full time was like for me I definitely do love coaching goalalkeepers and the more technical aspects of it. So I think having it on the side and just being in charge of like my goalkeepers, I, I'm doing that this year with like a small group of athletes so we'll see how that goes. But full time, I just, I don't know if I'm ready to think about water polo 247 to be honest.

>> Frank: Yeaheah. So maybe in this case or in these kind of situations, yeah, somebody have really to rethink the role or responsibility of a coach. Yeah. As you said, you are thinking when you have a full time coaching job you are really thinking full time about water polo. It's really then also some Kind of educational things and helping through the first not so small problems in a private lives of many people. it's a different challenge. Yeah, absolutely. I would say we start with. With the quick fire role. Yeah.

So with a quick uh fire round with five questions for you. Looking forward for your answers

So with a quick fire round with five questions for you. So very interesting. Looking forward for your answers. So let's see. question one would be your favorite pre game snack.

>> Speaker B: Oh, preame snack. I don't usually do but I always have like two shots of espresso before I leave the hotel so I don't usually eat very much. Games.

>> Frank: Yeah. Yeah. So in this case espresso is also snack.

>> Speaker B: Yes.

>> Frank: the best and most important save of your career so far.

>> Speaker B: Oh.

>> Frank: so many savers.

>> Speaker B: I think the most memorable which was also really important. I don't know if the most important but it was at ah Fukuoka. So that was 2022 or no 2023 sorry 2022 World Championships in Fukuoka I think. 2022. Sorry. we were playing the 7 8th place against Greece and we ended up going into penalty shootouts and I love penalty shootouts so I was super happy and I had already made two saves in the penalties but we missed one and the goalie saved one on the Greek side and I had to make a save to basically secure our win to get seventh place. And Nicoleta Elerdu the she was a really good shooter from Greece. She or Nicoleta, I can't remember her last name. yeah, I stopped her penalty. So that was I think probably one of the most important saves that I can remember of the most recent war o. Yeah.

>> Frank: Perfect.

If not water polo, what sports would you do

question number three is if not water polo, what sports would you do?

>> Speaker B: I think I would be a volleyball player.

>> Frank: You mentioned that at the very beginning. Ye. So the only available other sports beside Waterolo.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, I actually had offers to play Division two volleyball in the US like leaving high school. So it was kind of a Yeah it was a close call but I mean yeah, I could.

>> Frank: Yeah. So after so many years, maybe it's not so easy to say I will leave more or less water put on going to another spotah m. who's your favorite teammate?

>> Speaker B: Oh, my favorite teammate. That's gonna get me in trouble.

>> Frank: So many. The whole team.

>> Speaker B: So yeah, I mean I'm really lucky. I made like a really close group of fans playing water polo. But my best friend from water polo, her name is Gerri Sohi u. she was on the national team until 2022. And, yeah, we are, like, still best friends to this day, so probably I would have to say her.

>> Frank: Yeah. So. Which is a good sign. Yeah. So when it goes over the active career, beyond. Yeah, so it's exactly, I would say perfect. Yeah. So during the career it's, it's easier, but after active career to maintain these kind of relationships, beyond the active careers, much more, difficult in most of the cases.

>> Speaker B: Yeah. And actually that made me realize the game for Fukuoko was 2023.

>> Frank: Okay, 20. So we're just not so far away.

You've never played a German team, but maybe in the future

so last question for you. then we'done all the five questions. which German player or team? can you remember from your career so far?

>> Speaker B: I've never played a German team.

>> Frank: O so which makes it easy for this answer.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, I've never played, like, I did play a tournament with a German team in 2016 when we had the Olympic qualifiers for Rio in, Howuda in the Netherlands. Germany was there. And I remember thinking like, this is the first time I've seen the German team, but we never crossed over with them.

>> Frank: Okay.

>> Speaker B: Never played.

>> Frank: Yeah. So maybe in the future. Soeah. At the moment, the women are, very successful Germany. So maybe there's a chance.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, maybe World cup coming up.

>> Frank: I think Germany, woman's team. It'absolutely fine with that.

So what are your next, um, tournaments for you

so before we. We leave, the podcast for today. So what are your next, tournaments, important dates for you, what comes next for you?

>> Speaker B: I will be playing in conference cup with, a Turkish team, so that comes up in November. And, with the national team, we will be having World Cup Div. 2 qualifiers in April. So those are the next two major competitions.

>> Frank: Okay, so April next year.

>> Speaker B: Yes. Ah.

>> Frank: okay. Yeah. So which is, good for the planning. Yeah. So, for the schedule.

>> Speaker B: Yeah, there's lots of time to.

>> Frank: Good. I have to say it was a pleasure to have you here in the podcast. So thanks for joining again, taking the time today for us. And, yeah, so as already mentioned, maybe then there might be some more connections, to Germany in the future. And, yeah, talk to you soon then. Somewhere in the pool or.

>> Speaker B: Oh, sorry. I said thank you so much for having me here. It was really nice talking to you.

>> Frank: Thank you. And you're more than welcome.

>> Speaker B: Bye.

>> Frank: Bye. Don'know. Yeah, I through.