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| Stephania
HARALABIDIS |
| Sport |
Water Polo |
| NOC |
United States
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| Gender | Women |
| Born | 19 May 1995
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General Interest |
Other information |
HERITAGE
Her father is from Piraeus, Greece, and her mother is from the United States of America. "I have such pride of being Greek. It will never go away. Any chance I have, I am back in Greece. I love being Greek and I love being American. It's incredible. I miss the part of being around Greeks in the United States, talking Greek and having a connection with the Greek-American community. I feel so much pride and it's an incredible accomplishment coming from Greece to the United States and experiencing a new life. I just feel proud to be Greek-American." (hellenicnews.com, 31 Jul 2020; usawaterpolo.org, 03 Feb 2021)
INTERNATIONAL CAREER
She competed for Greece at both junior and senior levels prior to switching to compete for the United States of America in 2017. She had moved to the United States of America at age 17 for her final year of high school. "That system was a lot better [in the United States of America] because in Greece it's a lot harder to do sports and school." She first tried out for the US team in her first year at the University of Southern California, before trying again in her final year of university. "For the first two years I kind of struggled because this is the best team in the world, and they had been playing with each other for eight to 12 years, and they know each other very well. But I slowly got to a point where I was feeling more confident. I was feeling better and better." (usctrojans.com, 31 Dec 2016; latimes.com, 14 Dec 2017; hellenicnews.com, 31 Jul 2020; usawaterpolo.org, 03 Feb 2021)
FURTHER EDUCATION
In 2020 she was studying for a master's degree in business intelligence and analytic management. (ravermag.com, 30 Aug 2020; womenfitness.net, 30 May 2020)
OTHER ACTIVITIES
She has been a camp counsellor for The Painted Turtle, which provides camps for children with serious medical conditions. In 2017 she completed a marketing internship at a real estate firm. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Sep 2017) |
Sporting philosophy / motto |
"There are no guarantees in life, everything comes through hard work and dedication." (usawaterpolo.org, 01 Sep 2019) |
Further Personal Information |
Residence |
Long Beach, CA, USA |
General Interest |
Hobbies |
Reading, travelling, cooking, watching films and TV shows, art, listening to music, playing video games. (Facebook profile, 11 Jan 2022; Twitter profile, 15 Dec 2021; womenfitness.net, 30 May 2020) |
Superstitions / Rituals / Beliefs |
She likes to paint her toenails before a match. (usawaterpolo.org, 01 Jan 2020) |
Injuries |
Early in the 2016 collegiate season she injured her back and was out of the water for four months. (usawaterpolo.org, 03 Feb 2021) |
Hero / Idol |
Her mother Janet Scott. (dailytrojan.com, 07 Apr 2014) |
Sport Specific Information |
Club / Team |
Ethnikos Piraeus: Greece |
Further Personal Information |
Higher education |
International Relations - University of Southern California: Los Angeles, CA, USA |
General Interest |
Famous relatives |
Her twin sister Ioanna played water polo at the University of Southern California in the United States of America. (usctrojans.com, 31 Dec 2016) |
Sport Specific Information |
Why this sport? |
She and her twin sister Ioanna started to swim at a very young age but grew tired of the sport. They then decided to try water polo after encouragement from their father, who used to play. "We were always first, second place [in swimming]. We were really, really fast swimmers. We were going to be on the senior national swimming team, but we never really liked swimming. Going to practices we would cry to our mum, 'We don't want to go! We don't want to go! We don't like swimming!' And then one day my older sister was like, 'Mum, I'm done with swimming. I don't like it anymore'. And she was like, 'Okay. Let's try another sport'." |
General Interest |
Awards and honours |
She was named in the All-Star team at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Republic of Korea. (fina.org, 26 Jul 2019)
While playing for the University of Southern California in the United States of America, she received the 2016 Peter J. Cutino Award as the top collegiate water polo player in the United States of America. That same year, she was named Division I Player of the Year by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches [ACWPC] and named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation [MPSF] Player of the Year. (usawaterpolo.org, 31 Aug 2019)
While playing for Greece, she was named Most Valuable Player [MVP] of the 2011 European Junior Championships in Madrid, Spain. (usawaterpolo.org, 31 Aug 2019) |
Sport Specific Information |
Name of coach |
Marko Micic [club]; Adam Krikorian [national], USA |
Preferred position / style / stance / technique |
Driver |
Handedness |
Left |
When and where did you begin this sport? |
She took up water polo at age 12 in Greece. |
Further Personal Information |
Occupation |
Athlete, Model |
Languages |
English, Greek |
General Interest |
Nicknames |
Stef, Steph, Steffi (dailytrojan.com, 08 Feb 2017; usawaterpolo.org, 01 Jan 2020) |
Olympic Games |
| Rank |
Year |
Venue |
Event |
Result |
| 1 |
2021 |
Tokyo, JPN |
Team |
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World Championship |
| Rank |
Year |
Venue |
Event |
Result |
| 1 |
2022 |
Budapest, HUN |
Team |
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| 1 |
2019 |
Gwangju, KOR |
Team |
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World Cup |
| Rank |
Year |
Venue |
Event |
Result |
| 1 |
2018 |
Surgut, RUS |
Team |
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Pan American Games |
| Rank |
Year |
Venue |
Event |
Result |
| 1 |
2019 |
Lima, PER |
Team |
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