From the beginning of her water polo career, Women's National Team goalie Gabby Stone's aim has been to play for the very team she's on—and become an Olympian. Growing up she always looked up to net-minding legend Betsy Armstrong—and now Stone has the opportunity to follow in her footsteps as one of the 20 women training with Team USA to make it to the Tokyo Olympics next summer. 
 
Gabby's career began at a young age as she came from a water polo background with her sister Sally playing the sport and influencing her in that direction. "When she was in high school, I always went to her games, and it looked really fun—especially being in elementary school and being exposed to that. I wanted to be a part of it." Also, since her sister was a goalie, Stone made the decision to go for that position as well.
 
Stone's club career began at San Diego Shores, and her experience there was very positive: "It was great. Doug Peabody is a really big figure in San Diego, and he was my club and high school coach, and my older sister had him as a coach, and I remember her saying amazing things and I always knew that water polo is great and I had the opportunity to be coached by amazing people who really care about the athletes."
 
Her first tournament wound up being Junior Olympics which was quite a challenge—and despite not winning, she enjoyed the experience. "That was a big wake-up call; it was 14 and under, so that was really my first time playing with the team. My team got crushed; we lost every game by about 20 goals, but I still had a great time. It was still really fun, and even though we didn't play very well, I had a great time with my teammates, and I guess I knew that there was nowhere to go but up at that point. I'm really happy that didn't deter me from playing the sport."
 
Apart from her club career, Stone played water polo at Bishop's School where she competed on the  varsity team all four years. Recalling her time there she says, "It started off rocky. My freshman year I was competing with a sophomore goalie for the starting position, and the coaches really didn't know what to do at that moment, so we split the entire year. At first the goalie and I did not get along at all because we knew we were each other's competition until finally our coach said, 'You guys need to get along to make this work.'" That's where Gabby learned the importance of good relationships with teammates: "Then we became best friends and wouldn't stop talking throughout that year, so then my coach said we needed more competitiveness. But after that she became a field player, and I had the opportunity to start the last three years. Having that responsibility when I was a sophomore and having the seniors rely on me taught me a lot about holding up my end and that my team was depending on me. The pressure was tough, but I actually really enjoyed it because it was exciting. And her biggest highlight? "My junior year was the first year we won CIF, and that was amazing—especially after losing my first two years. It made winning feel even better."
 
After finishing high school, Stone went on to college at Stanford. On why she chose to go there: "I thought it was the best of both worlds—combining a really strong academic program and a strong water polo program. Both were really important to me, and also my mom went to Stanford. I grew up going to the campus, and I remember touring colleges, and I felt like I was visiting the campuses—but when I went to Stanford, I was coming back home." Stone enjoyed her time on the water polo team as she recounts, "It was amazing. I loved the team, and I loved the coaches. Everyone was so unique in general. At Stanford, you really don't know who you're going to meet, so if I could go back and do it again, I would." At Stanford she was a three-time All-American and three-time NCAA champion with her top highlight being winning the NCAAs her senior year at Indianapolis: "Before that year people kept saying, 'You won it before, so isn't it kind of old by now?' But I think winning that year was the best feeling of all the times. Maggie Steffens, Makenzie Fischer, and I came back from training in 2016 to a new team with a lot of different ages, and I think John Tanner said we had seven different classes in age level because people had taken time off. I felt a lot of responsibility to help my team and also to give that experience to the freshmen and sophomores who had never won before and being the underdog and that tournament made me feel fire for us. After the final buzzer I think everyone was pretty incredulous that we had won, and it was just an amazing feeling."
 
Following college Stone decided to go to Europe and play professionally. "I played for Mataro in Spain. Playing abroad was always something I wanted to do, and in high school there were alumni who came back to practice with our team, and they talked about their experience in Spain or Australia or Italy, and in college we aren't able to study abroad because the season is in the spring, and we don't have the time to do it. I felt that playing abroad after college would be a really cool experience—not only to keep up my water polo skills but also to meet new people, learn another language, and see different cultures. And I was really happy I did."
 
Stone's first experience with the National Team came when she tried out for the Olympic Development Program. "My club coaches suggested ODP because it was a great building block for getting into college, joining the national team, and getting more exposure. I remember feeling so sick before going to the tryout—like I'd be curled up in the back of the car with butterflies. I was pretty stressed out for them during the rest of my ODP experience; I didn't do that well. I felt like I was intimidated a lot by the LA and Orange County powerhouses. I always felt like an underdog being from San Diego, and not very many San Diego girls were there." 
 
Despite those jitters Stone persevered and wound up making the youth team one year. "I went to youth World Championships in Australia. It was great. I was 18, and I was a freshman in college, and that tournament was held in December. I kind of just joined the youth team during Christmas break, and it was amazing being there—and being a part of the National Team has been my dream for so long, and to get the opportunity to play on a national stage…nothing compares to that." 
 
But believe it or not, at one point Stone thought about quitting! "There was a point with the national team when I didn't make the Junior Team, and I thought, 'Maybe this isn't for me,' and that was in the summer—and then that fall [Head Coach] Adam [Krikorian] invited me to a senior team camp at Stanford. It was amazing to  get that second chance, and after that camp Adam told me that when players don't make teams, coaches don't really know how they'll respond—whether to come back or go in a different direction. But he was really proud of me for sticking with it and going to National Team camps, so that always stayed with me as a motivator." It was at that camp that Gabby was called up to Senior National Team—and on her first thoughts she says, "I was pretty happy. I was pretty amazed. That's something players always dream about—to get that phone call or email from Adam that he wants you to try out for the team. I was pretty nervous at that first training camp when I had officially started with the senior team at Stanford. I talked to my goalie coach, and I said how nervous I was, and she said, 'Don't worry about it; you're fine. He's not going to decide anything from the camp anyway. Just go out and play and do your thing—don't worry about it.' I didn't realize at the time that she was just trying to take that pressure off of me, so I didn't get so down on myself or overthink what I was doing during that camp—and it worked."
 
Stone's first big National Team event came at the 2017 FINA World League Super Final in Shanghai, China. Since number-one and -two goalies Ashleigh Johnson and Sami Hill weren't competing that summer, it thrust Gabby into the starting position for that tournament, which was a big moment for her: "It was a lot to handle mentally. I was really excited. It was something I had worked for a long time, especially coming off 2016 when I was the third goalie for that whole quad. It was pretty intimidating at first, but just like I did in the earlier ODP camps, I just breathed through the nerves. I tried to collect myself and tried not to overthink from then on. And it was a dream come true to travel with the team." Stone performed well during that tournament as she helped lead Team USA to the Gold medal, cumulating with a 12-6 victory over Canada in the final.
 
Her greatest moment so far with the National Team came at the 2017 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, where she also led Team USA to Gold with a 13-6 victory over Spain. Recalling that tournament she says, "That was the biggest stage I had competed on, and you couldn't have asked for a better venue on Margaret Island with the Hungarian crowd all chanting—it was awe-inspiring. I remember looking at this big screen in the stands during a timeout, and weirdly enough I saw my parents on the kiss cam! I started laughing at how absurd this moment was and that it was actually real: I was competing with the best players in the world on this stage, and I'll always remember that."
 
To start 2020, Stone traveled with the Women's National Team to Australia for training and exhibition games. Despite the women's winning streak ending, Stone took some positives from the games: "I was really excited to go on the Australia trip. I was excited to start the year off well with the team and play some games because we have been training so hard in the fall. But I think we were all excited to have a few exhibition games and play against other teams. Unfortunately, we lost the game that I played, but I felt really strong in the game, and I think that mirrors the rest of my water polo history—coming back from behind and being an underdog is comfortable to me. So, getting behind in that game and losing didn't deter me because I knew we were going to bounce back."
 
Currently the Women's National Team has resumed training with a new style. "We did socially distant practice, which is one practice a day to get in the water so as not to get to get out of the pool too much. We're on a break right now preparing for another year of full-time training. Our coaches and trainers are putting a ton of time into trying to figure out the schedule that would have everyone distanced and in different pods. They limited cross interaction between teammates. We basically had two swim groups and then four different weight groups. Swim groups were an hour and a half each and practiced back to back—and depending on when you swam, you either lifted weights before or after. It was pretty difficult at first to get into a groove at socially distant training because we all want to play water polo. It's the sport we love, and we just want to compete, so we have to learn that we can't always run over and hug our friend—but it was great to see my teammates every day and try to get some normalcy back in this time."
 
With the Olympics postponed to 2021, Stone has set new expectations for herself. "The postponement was a pretty tough pill to swallow because we've been building so much and so hard for the goal that we thought was at a fixed date, and we had gotten so strong for that moment. With it being postponed a year, I've been trying to mentally reframe it into a positive that I have more time to work on jumps, to get stronger in my legs, to work on my injuries. I'm trying to see the positives in the moment even though we are in tough times right now—and talking with my teammates has really helped, and it's a great support system."
 
Lastly Stone offers advice to those hoping to make the National Team someday. "I would say find the joy in the sport and try to have fun as much as you can. With me I put so much pressure on myself to reach a single goal—to make the national team—that I found myself getting very narrow minded and almost too focused to the point where I almost lost sight of the reason I started playing water polo in the first place. So focus on the journey and having fun with your teammates and improving better—and enjoy the small moments because if you enjoy the journey, then the goal will come."