MAKING IT IN AMERICA: Princeton University women’s water polo star Jovana Sekulic poses with the U.S. flag. Rising junior Sekulic was recently named to the U.S. squad that will be competing at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. Earning a spot in the Olympics culminates an unlikely journey for Sekulic, who grew up in Belgrade, Serbia, and moved to the U.S. when she was 11. (Photo provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)

By Justin Feil

A pair of Princeton University women’s water polo team products are on the United States team headed to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Superstar goalie Ashleigh Johnson ’17 is on her third Olympic team, and it’s no surprise that the three-time All-American out of Princeton is going again.

Jovana Sekulic is less of a household name. She is going to her first Olympics ahead of returning to Princeton for her junior year after being picked by head coach Adam Krikorian as one of the final 13 players on the U.S. roster.

“It is such a privilege and honor to be selected to the 13, and to represent this country at the highest athletic event in the world, it’s unbelievable,” said Sekulic. “It’s like a dream come true.”

Except for Sekulic, it’s a fairly recent dream.

She didn’t really consider the Olympics a possibility until a few years ago. She grew up in Belgrade, Serbia, and moved to the U.S. when she was 11.

“Growing up in Serbia, the woman’s water polo isn’t as high level as in other countries, so it never really crossed my mind that I would be able to,” said Sekulic, who is 21. “And then I moved here and I was on the East Coast so far away from like the water polo hub. It was never really in my mind. I always just had this this mindset of I want to get better. I want to learn more, my goal is to play the highest level of water polo that I can and to see what’s my ceiling and can I get to it?”

Sekulic is still climbing thanks to the collaborative efforts of her family, her club, high school, Olympic Development, Junior Training camp, Princeton University, and Olympic team coaches. She’s been developing into a world-class player for the better part of 15 years. She was living in Serbia still when she was introduced to the sport.

“My mom basically took me to practice with my brother at a water polo club there when I was maybe in second grade,” said Sekulic. “There was a small women’s club, which I joined a few months later and kind of developed a passion for the sport there.”

Her older brother, Matej, played for the Princeton men’s team during her first two years at Old Nassau. Her younger brother, Luka, plays at Navy. They have been an important part of her growth. When the family moved to the United States in 2014, she attended Springton Lake Middle School in Media, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, and when her brothers joined the Maverick Water Polo club that trained at nearby Haverford School, she came along. The school is all-boys and the club was almost all boys too.

“I already had two brothers and I loved playing with them,” said Sekulic. “I always felt like they challenged me on another level because they were faster, stronger. So it was the same thing like that, but times 10. All these guys wanted to beat me and then that was even more of a motivation for me and I wanted to beat them and I think it really did make me better. I had nothing to lose, so I was always going for it. They were like my brothers. A lot of them I’ve stayed in contact with, and I’m really grateful for that club team.”

Sekulic had a chance to play with girls when she moved to the Episcopal Academy (Pa.) in eighth grade, but didn’t give up her commitment to Maverick club. She played tournaments for Maverick in the spring and summer, swam through the winter for Episcopal to get extra conditioning in, and played water polo for Episcopal in the fall.

The same eighth grade year that she joined Episcopal, she found the Olympic Development Program (ODP). It was life-changing. Although her family was initially resistant to the ODP commitment —they weren’t doing it for her brothers — an Episcopal family took her to a zone practice in Connecticut and then she kept going.

“It was really cool because I met some girls that actually I ended up going to college with later that first camp,” said Sekulic. “But just being exposed to a higher level of water polo that I had been craving since I had moved, and then we went to California and my eyes were opened and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, people care about water polo here, and they’re watching it,’ and it was awesome. I loved it. But I was kind of sad that I didn’t get the same things. Our practices on the East Coast aren’t as hard or they don’t happen as frequently as they do in some clubs in California. We just don’t have the same resources maybe is the right word for it.”

Sekulic kept attending ODP training, and was invited to a junior national training camp that fall. The camp opened another door to the future.

“That’s actually how I met Adam, because he was at the training,” said Sekulic. “So ODP is a program that’s very, very beneficial to kids that are like myself removed from California but have a passion for the sport and want to learn more.”

Sekulic was on the radar for the U.S. from then on as she moved through high school. She committed to Princeton to follow Matej.

“That was huge for me,” said Sekulic. “Obviously he was older, so he went before me. Princeton was kind of like a dream school for me, and then I’m very close with my family, so him going there was amazing for me to be able to have him. I could say, ‘Want to go to the library together? Want to go get a coffee together?’ Just to have a little piece of home with me at college, it was amazing. And I’m so lucky that that we were together for two years at Princeton.”

During her first two seasons at Princeton, Sekulic was a third-team All-American in 2022 and second-team All-American in 2023. Within the Collegiate Water Polo Association, she was Rookie of the Year and then Player of the Year. In her first season, the Tiger center scored 74 goals, had 31 steals and drew 70 ejections. She followed it up with 76 goals and 93 draw ejections as a sophomore.

“It was cool because now I’m like on a playing field with people that understand and we’re having a conversation about things that I would never be able to have with people in my high school,” said Sekulic. “It was cool to play with those girls and become friends with them.”

Following her sophomore year, Sekulic decided to take a gap year from Princeton and accept an invitation to train with 17 others for the national team.

“It really wasn’t that tough of a choice to take the year off because water polo was always something that I loved,” said Sekulic. “And this didn’t seem like I was making a hard decision and just felt like a natural thing in my life which I accepted with open arms. And regardless of what the decision would have been, I would have been happy to have had the opportunity to even be a part of those 18 and to grow and to learn more about the sport and also to grow as a person during this process.”

Sekulic, a psychology major at Princeton, has learned much about herself over the last year. It was an intense year of training in a new environment.

“I’ve realized what my values are as I’ve matured,” said Sekulic. “The process kind of made me mature faster because I was living alone and doing all these things that my college friends were not even thinking about. And just facing loneliness and hardships but being by yourself. I have my family to call, but this process allowed me to face all these things by myself, and so I think I found strength in that. I think I’ve learned a lot from the older girls that are on the team that I’ve befriended. A bunch of them are much, much older than me. But that’s been also really, really cool.”

It’s been a steady rise for Sekulic through her playing career. Each step along her unique journey has pushed her further toward her highest level. She’s excited to be competing among the best in the world.

“I’m grateful for all the people that during my life have seen me and helped me, whether it was my first water polo coach or that coach who recruited me to Episcopal or even my swim coach at Episcopal,” said Sekulic. “You say my background is unique, but I think it’s because of all those people that have helped me along the way. And my story is probably very, very different than the rest of my teammates, but every single one of my teammates here has a very, very unique story to their own. I think I also got lucky that coaches here when I was younger at the ODP development program saw me and wanted to invest coaching in me and tell me you’re doing this wrong so do this and that. And Adam gave me this opportunity and the ability to learn and get better.”

Sekulic joins a juggernaut. There is a high standard already in place. She is part of a U.S. women’s program that has won three straight Olympic golds. The U.S. will begin its title defense when it faces Greece on July 27 in its first game of Group B action.

“Our coach says every time you practice how you play,” said Sekulic. “It’s not like we’re going to go to the Olympics and suddenly turn it on, like suddenly play 10 times better than we’ve played anywhere else. We train being really good in practice and so that hopefully is a habit and then once we get there, we’re ready for it and we showcase that.”

Sekulic didn’t know an Olympic gold was a possibility a decade ago, but her passion and drive to be the best she could be at water polo has earned her that opportunity.

“My family came to the United States in hopes for a better life, a better future specifically for my brothers and I,” said Sekulic. “I’ve been here for 10 years and I lived in Serbia for 11, so it’s basically half of my life and I have this identity of half Serbian, half American. And it actually feels very natural to me and it feels like I am playing for my country. And I think that’s really cool. It’s an honor. In a way, I do feel like I’m giving back to what this country has given me.”