Danijela Jackovich

Danijela Jackovich hails from Chicago, Illinois, where she grew up playing a host of sports – in particular, she was a talented basketballer.

But it is water polo that has taken her around the world. Danijela competed for Stanford University and was part of the US gold medal winning team at the World University Games back in 2017. An aggressive centre, she has also played water polo in Hungary and Spain.

But these days she has made her home in Cronulla, in southern Sydney, and is a prolific scorer for the Cronulla Sharks in the Australian Water Polo League.

"My water polo and life journey have led me to my new home in Australia, a country I am proud to represent,” Danijela said, who is a biomechanical engineer.

Danijela made her debut for the Stingers at the 2024 World Championships in Doha. Australia finished sixth, beating Britain 20-8 in the round of 16 before going down by a point to the USA in the quarter-finals.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Danijela and the Stingers became the most successful Australian water polo team ever at an overseas Olympic Games.

Their silver medal performance was close to being gold, going down 11-9 to world number one Spain in the gold medal match.

They got there with an undefeated run in the group matches against the Netherlands, Hungary, China and Canada with two of those wins coming via penalty shootout. They took out Greece in the quarter-finals and world powerhouse the USA in the semis in another penalty shootout.