USA Water Polo Renews Contracts of Adam Krikorian, Dejan Udovicic Through 2028 Olympics
USA Water Polo on Friday announced that it has extended the contracts of women’s national team coach Adam Krikorian and men’s team boss Dejan Udovicic through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Krikorian is in line to lead the U.S. women through a fifth straight Olympic cycle. Udovicic is in place for a fourth straight cycle. Both had their contracts extended most recently in Dec. 2021 to stretch through the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Krikorian led the U.S. women to Olympic gold medals in London in 2012, Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021 before the team fell to fourth place in Paris last summer. Under his watch, the women have won six World Aquatics Championships, four World Cups, four Pan Am Games and 11 World League Super Final titles. They compiled a 69-match winning streak, and Krikorian was named the USOPC’s Olympic Coach of the Year in 2012.
“I am thrilled to continue to be a part of a program that has given so much to me personally and that has had such an enormous positive influence on the sport throughout our country and the world,” Krikorian said in a press release. “I look forward to working with the team of athletes and staff through the detailed process of development and forging the relationships along the way that makes the journey so special.”
Krikorian is a native of Santa Clara. The member of the UCLA Hall of Fame will get a chance to coach close to home in the 2028 Olympics.
Udovicic took over the U.S. in 2012 and led it to a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics to end a 16-year medal drought. The U.S. men were 10th at the Rio Olympics, then sixth in Tokyo. He led the U.S. to its first World Cup medal since 1997, plus three Pan Am Games golds and three silver medals in the World Aquatics World League.
“I’m so proud of what our team accomplished over the last four years and thrilled to continue as head coach of the USA men’s national team,” Udovicic said. “I want to thank everyone in USA Water Polo for their support. I’m excited to build on our results from Paris with Los Angeles up next. We have an excellent core group of athletes that are entering their prime [and] putting us in a position to achieve what has been my goal since the day I joined USA Water Polo: reaching the top of the podium and winning a gold medal. We know this won’t be easy but I believe in our team and our staff and am confident the best is yet to come.”
“USA Water Polo has two of the best international coaches in the world and I am excited to announce that Adam Krikorian will lead our women’s senior national team and Dejan Udovicic our men’s senior national team on our paths for gold medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games,” USA Water Polo CEO Jamie Davis said. “Adam’s accomplishments are unparalleled, and under Dejan’s leadership in Paris last summer our men won the program’s first Olympic medal since 2008. We have big goals on the journey to LA28 and I’m confident that Adam and Dejan will position us well for victory.”