The562’s coverage of aquatic sports in Long Beach is sponsored by the Aquatic Capital of America Foundation.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
Traveling the world comes with the territory for elite young water polo players in America. For Wilson water polo star Katherine O’Dea it’s been her entire life.
O’Dea recently competed in the 2024 Pythia Cup in Itea, Greece as part of the USA Women’s Youth National Team, and has started training in preparation for the World Aquatics Women’s U18 Water Polo Championships in China from Sept. 15-22.
“You definitely need to have your own motivation,” O’Dea said of making these youth teams. “It’s competitive but most of the girls I’m trying out with we’ve been best finds and super close for the past five or six years. We’re constantly seeing each other at tournaments. Being competitive and motivated are the most important things.”
O’Dea added that progressing through those tryouts is made easier because it’s not her first USA Women’s Youth National Team trip. She’s also played in New Zealand, Hungary and Slovakia.
“I look at my past experience and traveling internationally and seeing the different water polo around the world,” she said. “I take my experience from those trips and I apply it to the difficult games I play.”
“She’s been around the game for so long,” said Barry O’Dea, her dad and coach at Wilson. “She’s just been kind of embedded in it. There’s just things that she gets about it that might give her a leg up.”
Her all-around skill set helped O’Dea lead USA to a second-place finish at the 2024 Pythia Cup against Israel, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
“I love traveling,” said O’Dea. “I love walking the cities and eating different food… Now going to China (for World Championships) I get to go somewhere to play a sport I’m familiar with in a country that I’m familiar with.”
Her mom Sandy Liu O’Dea’s parents are from China and the family has been there for vacation as well. That taste for travel was nurtured when coach O’Dea was talking his boys’ water polo team at Corona Del Mar to New Zealand for summer competition.
O’Dea said she loves when her family travels with her to international competitions, but sometimes she feels left out.
“I get super jealous when I see my sister (Maya) out on the beach,” O’Dea said. “She’s in her swimsuit relaxing and I’m in my swimsuit training and getting scratched up. But it’s definitely worth it.”
Earlier this summer, O’Dea also led her Long Beach Aquatics Federation club team to a fifth place finish in the Girls’ U18 Junior Olympics.
