2024 ODP Nationals a Showcase for USA Water Polo, DuPage Sports Commission

Back when USA Water Polo started its Olympic Development Program in 2009, there were only a few hundred participants — a number that last year had grown to around 6,000 athletes who took part in one ODP camp around the country.

The latest sign of the growth within the ODP program is this weekend when the 2024 USA Water Polo Olympic Development Program National Championship is held in Westmont, Illinois.

“The biggest significance of hosting an event of this size is this particular event has never been to this area,” said Igor Bakovic, director of sports for the DuPage Sports Commission. “I know it has taken a lot of collaborative effort not only on our part, but obviously on USA Water Polo’s part as well.”

The ODP tournament which starts Friday and goes throughout the weekend, comes to the DuPage area within days of the region hosting the latest stop in the USA Swimming TYR Pro Series.

“Anytime you have an Olympic pipeline event coming into your area that speaks volumes for you as a destination in terms of welcoming that caliber of athlete to the area,” said Elizabeth Gaucher, a strategic consultant for Discover DuPage. “I think it’s a parallel, bringing a high caliber event to an area that is similarly high caliber in terms of a destination.”

The hub of the ODP event will be FMC Natatorium, which opened in 2020 and has two pools for competitions plus seating for 1,200. For the tournament, four other locations will also be utilized in the region for an event that will draw over 900 athletes in youth, cadet and developmental levels. Between events organized by USA Artistic Swimming, USA Swimming and USA Water Polo, the region will have hosted seven major events at the facility by the end of this year.

“There’s definitely huge potential with Chicago being an international hub and being easily accessible to various parts of the world,” Bakovic said. “Having relationships with USA Swimming, USA Water Polo, USA Artistic Swimming and continuing to grow and develop these relationships and build their trust in what we can do here over the next couple of years is really going to be beneficial for us. Of course, none of this would be possible without our partners at the FMC Natatorium.”

“Sports no longer live and only resonate within the boundaries of the city of Chicago — that the exciting sports nature lives in the suburbs as well,” Gaucher added. “There’s this new identity for people and understanding there are really exciting things they can watch and see that are happening in their own community that they might not even have realized what’s going on.”

Growing the Sport Nationally

For USA Water Polo, having a major event like the ODP nationals in DuPage County is part of the strategy to continue growing the sport beyond its traditional stronghold of California.

“Chicago and Illinois actually are one of the stronger areas around the country in terms of the number of clubs and it’s an official high school sport there,” said Christopher Ramsey, USA Water Polo chief executive officer. “And there’s a huge Eastern European population that really loves the sport of water polo in the Chicago area. We just thought this was a great opportunity and to take advantage of a great facility.”

The affinity of water polo resonates with Bakovic, who was born in the former Yugoslavia which is a region of the world where the sport has a strong following.

“This (event) brings exposure to our community and to the sport of water polo itself,” Bakovic said. “There could be younger kids that have never been exposed water polo. And they see the level of excitement and everything else that this event could bring to this area and say, wow, this is a really cool sport. And then it’s something they dive into. … There are obviously opportunities for people to meet each other from various parts of the country and you maybe form new bonds. So, there’s a lot of different aspects this event could foster.”

Augustana College in the Quad Cities hosted the 2023 Division III men’s national championship tournament in December, the first time the tournament was outside of California. Over the past two decades while the NCAA Division I men’s championship has almost entirely stayed in California, it has actually been in locations such as Princeton, New Jersey, in 2009 and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2005. The NCAA Women’s Division I championship within the past eight years has been hosted by Indianapolis and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“If you look at water polo over the years, we have kept the strength that California has always been for us,” Ramsey said. “But the growth is really coming in states outside of California. I think we’re in the 2 percent growth range in California pretty consistently. Last year, we might’ve gone up 15 percent outside of California. Markets like Texas, where they’ve adopted us as the first new high school varsity sport in the last 25 years, these markets are really growing. And they have an appetite for more programming that we can put in there.”

From ODP to Paris

Whether this weekend’s event is where fans will see future Olympians or not, there is no doubt that USA Water Polo is at one of its highest points internationally. The women’s national team has won five of the past six world championships, including earlier this year in Doha and in Paris will seek a fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. The men’s team finished ninth at the world championships and is looking for its first medal since winning silver in 2008.

“Both of our teams have excellent chances in Paris,” Ramsey said. “Our women will go in probably as the favorite after winning the world championship in Doha. So that’s one kind of pressure. Our men will go in knowing that they can beat any team in the world now and just having to string together the consistency to do that.”

It will also be the final Olympics for Ramsey as the leader for USA Water Polo. Ramsey has been with the NGB for 17 years and. USA Water Polo membership now totals nearly 50,000, doubling participation in the past decade. Financially, the organization has increased revenue to $16 million in 2022 from under $4 million in 2006.

“I think my contributions have been built more around creating a business model that is secure,” Ramsey said. “And that has created thousands of job opportunities for coaches, officials and others around the country through the growth that we’ve experienced. And that’s a platform upon which to build.”

“I’m not wistful about (retiring),” he added. “I’m proud that we’ve been able to get both of our teams to this really high level. And I’m also proud, frankly, that we’ve been able to create a balance between elite performance and between recreational club participation performance that gets more kids involved in sports. We always have to keep that focus. It’s easy in Olympic sport to think about Olympic gold medals and get very excited and they’re incredible accomplishments. But they touch 25, 50 athletes over a four-year period, whereas we’ve now grown to 50,000 members. And all of those kids are having experiences that are impactful on their lives and their family’s lives.”