Jacob Mercep

Born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a city and country that loves water polo, it was no surprise Jacob Mercep grew up playing the sport. At eight years old, Jacob's brother originally had the idea to play water polo, and from that point on Jacob stuck with the sport.

During his high school days Jacob played for the junior team for one of Croatia's most renowned water polo clubs, Jug Dubrovnik.

Scoring 67 goals in 31 appearances from 2014 to 2017, the teenager impressed heavily, leading to him being called up to compete for Croatia at the 2016 FINA Youth World Championships. After beating his future national side Australia in the quarter finals 14-13 and eventually Montenegro 16-13 in the final, Croatia won gold at the tournament.

In the year following, at the 2017 FINA Junior World Championships, Jacob represented Croatia again, this time just missing out after losing the final 12-10 against Greece.

Following his completion of high school in Croatia, Jacob moved to the USA. Beginning with San Jose State University, Jacob immediately made an impact for them. Playing in 27 games, Jacob set a San Jose single season record and led the conference in scoring 93 goals.

After earning the Golden Coast Conference newcomer of the year and being named as an Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-American honourable mention, Jacob jumped ship and began studying at the University of Southern California, where he would play for the University's water polo team, the Trojans.

Across the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Jacob scored 113 goals and was named in the All-America First Team for both campaigns. In Jacob's final season with the Trojans, he yet again led the scoring with 39 goals in the shortened 2020 season.

After the pandemic, Jacob moved to Australia where he played two seasons for the Sydney University Lions, in 2022 and 2023.

Jacob was subsequently called up for the Aussie Sharks for his impressive performances, and made his debut in the Tri Nations Test Match Series in Perth, where he won player of the match in his first game.

In 2024 Jacob made his World Championships debut and Olympic debut.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Jacob and the Sharks recorded statement wins over defending Olympic champion Serbia, host nation France and Hungary in the group stage.

Finishing second in their group, it gave Australia a place in the men's Olympic quarter-finals for the first time since London 2012.

A penalty-shootout loss to the USA in the quarter-finals sent the Sharks into the 5th-8th classification games and they came away in 8th place, up from the team's 9th overall placing at Tokyo 2020.