Ruling Water Polo After Adversity

Top players Mandic and Ortiz overcome setbacks to reach pinnacle of sport

- David Lee

Dusan Mandic and Beatriz Ortiz may be Olympic champions and the world's best men and women's water polo players respectively, but the road to success was fraught with bitter failures and disappointments.

In a phone interview ahead of the July 11-Aug 3 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, Mandic told The Straits Times: "If you think training is hard, try losing."

The 2.02-metre Serb, born and raised in Montenegro, has come a long way since he was a "childish rebel" who experimented with sports like karate, jiu-jitsu, sailing and tennis before settling on water polo.

His prowess in the pool grew as quickly as his growth spurt—he gained 20cm and 30kg from age 16 to 18—as he started racking up championships since winning the youth world championship with Serbia in 2011.

After a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics, he led Serbia on a run of nine major titles, including gold at the 2015 world championships and Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics.

However, while he also has three European crowns, the right-winger and driver has had his fair share of setbacks.

These included a seventh-place finish after single-goal defeats by Montenegro and Spain at the 2013 world championships and the medal drought between the Tokyo and Paris Games.

But the heartbreaks only served to spur Mandic on to greater things.