Bea Ortiz, Dusan Mandic Named World Aquatics Water Polo Athletes of the Year
Spain’s Bea Ortiz and Dusan Mandic of Serbia were named Water Polo Athlete of the Year this week by World Aquatics.
Mandic led Serbia to a third straight Olympic title. Mandic was the top scorer of the tournament with 26 goals and was elected the most valuable player of the tournament in Paris. He scored seven goals to navigate trouble in Serbia’s opener, a 16-15 win over Japan. Serbia lost three of its five group-stage matches but scraped into the knockout stage.
Mandic scored five times in a 12-11 win over Greece in the quarterfinals. He had two assists in defeating the United States in the semifinals, then a goal in beating Croatia, 13-11, for gold. It avenged a loss in the quarterfinals of February’s World Championships, which saw Serbia slump to a sixth-place finish.
Mandic, 30, was Serbia’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. Born in Kotor in what is now Montenegro, Mandic has been part of each gold medal win for Serbia and has competed in four Olympics.
Ortiz was an instrumental part of Spain winning its first Olympic gold medal, having earned silver in Tokyo in 2021 and in London in 2012. Spain won bronze in Doha, medaling for the fourth time in six editions of the tournament, and silver at the European Championships.
Ortiz scored four goals to go with an assist in Spain’s 11-9 win over Australia in the gold-medal match in Paris. She scored 19 goals (plus one in the penalty shootout in a 19-18 semifinal win over 2023 world champion Netherlands) to go with 11 assists in Paris after 18 goals and 10 assists in Tokyo three years earlier. Ortiz was tied for second in the tournament at 19 goals with Hungary’s Rita Keszthelyi, trialing only Alice Williams of Australia.
Ortiz is 29. The native of Terrassa is a three-time Olympian.
