Lea Yanitsas

Fast Facts 

Sport: Water Polo 
Event: Women
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Year Born:  1989 
Born: Sydney, NSW

About Lea

If you want to be an Olympian then there's no better place to start, than meeting an Olympian to stoke the fire a little further.

When Lea’s Physical Education teacher at Mackellar Girls High school happened to be Sydney 2000 Gold medallist Debbie Watson, she had the perfect sounding board and mentor right in front of her.

Watson came out of retirement in 1997 so she could compete at an Olympics and Yanitsas had tended goal for the Stingers for a decade before being named in the Rio 2016 team.

There have been a few pauses in between. She sat out the 2014 season needing surgery on two fingers plus hip rehabilitation work – proving a goalkeeper’s life ‘in the cage’ also has its injury issues.

Then another stoppage came happily for Lea and husband Andrew as they welcomed son, Constantine, into the world in October 2018.

When pushing on to her second Olympics, Lea was reminded of one of her favourite sayings:

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realise, how close they were to success when they gave up" - Thomas Edison, American inventor. 

The Aussies kicked-started their Rio campaign with a strong, dominant 14-4 win over Russia which saw Yanitsas make 4 from 4 saves. Their second pool match proved to be more of a challenge with the green and gold side narrowly going down to Italy 7-8 despite the scores being tied until the final seconds. 

The Aussies then powered home to take a decisive 10-3 win over hosts Brazil in the final pool game, setting up a quarter-final clash against Hungary. In a physical, tense and ultimately heartbreaking encounter the Australians lost in a penalty shootout after scores were level, 8-8, after four quarters, ending their 2016 Olympic campaign. 

Goalkeeper for the Sydney University Lions National League team, Yanitsas co-captained the team with fellow Stinger Keesja Gofers to their maiden National Water Polo League title in March, 2016. The Lions came from behind to claim a 12-8 victory over 2015 champions the Brisbane Barracudas, in a match that boasted numerous Australian Stingers in both teams.

Lea made her second Olympic appearance at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic games. Tasked with being the last line of defense for the Australian water polo squad. The Aussies would play out an impressive group staging of the games, finishing tied first on points and advancing to the quarter-finals in second. 

Australia would face the ROC in their quarter-final tie, narrowly being defeated 9-8, eliminating the squad from medal contention. The Aussie would finish the games on a high note, defeating both Canada and the Netherlands to secure a 5th overall place. Australia would also boast the second least goal conceded throughout the entire tournament, a testament to the ability of Lea, between the posts.