Jordan Raney was on hand to see the Women's National Team play the Netherlands in the Gold medal game at the 2008 Beijing Olympics—and little did she know at the time that years later she would make the Women's National Team and have her own chance at going to the Olympics. 
 
Raney grew up in Manhattan Beach, CA, where she enjoyed playing soccer, softball, and basketball. But water polo? Not exactly her thing right off the bat.
 
"I actually did not like water polo growing up," she recalls. "I was being stubborn because my dad was pushing me so hard to try it because he played it, and I just refused because I wanted to be different." However, things would change as she got older, suffered a foot injury, and could no longer play soccer. Her father then convinced her to try it again. 
 
"I ended up trying to play water polo full time, my dad actually played water polo back in the day at Pomona College, and my mom was a Division 1 athlete at UCLA for swimming," Raney says. "So, I ended up trying water polo when I was 13 full-time and not just as a seasonal sport, and I ended up really liking it. That's kind of where my drive for water polo began."
 
Raney first began playing for the Trojan Water Polo club under coach Moriah Van Norman—a 2008 Beijing Olympian—before transitioning to Huntington Beach Water Polo club under another Beijing Olympian, Natalie Golda Benson. At both clubs Raney got the experience of playing at Junior Olympics: "With Trojan I was with the 16 and Unders when I was 13, and then I did 16s and 18s with Huntington Beach. It was a great experience. I don't think I would be able to do what they do now, playing three games a day for however many days, but it was super fun being with the teams. Seeing the different level of play between the 16s and 18s and becoming friends with older athletes and younger athletes was a lot of fun for me."
 
On top of playing club water polo, Raney also competed for Mira Costa High School where, from day one, she was on the varsity team. As she recalls, it was a big step—and a bit unnerving.
 
"If you're the youngest you're intimidated by the older girls and every class—the sophomores, juniors, and seniors don't expect much from you," Raney notes. "But once you start to prove yourself, they start to respect you. Which is also the case for college and the national team when you're the newcomer. You gotta earn their respect and show what you can do, and I think that I did a pretty good job of that in all those instances." 
 
At Mira Costa she helped lead the team to its best-ever season: "Senior year we got second at the CIF finals. Obviously I would have loved to win, but just getting to that game was amazing, and I don't think my high school had ever come that close to winning a CIF title before, so it was cool for my senior year to get close to being the number one team that Mira Costa had."
 
When Raney first started playing water polo, she had her eyes set on playing collegiately, and indeed she wound up at Stanford.
 
"It felt like a home away from home," she says of the Palo Alto, CA, campus. "It has in my opinion the best combination of academics and athletics, and the people there are so different and really down to earth—even if they discover the cure for pancreatic cancer or have multiple TED talks. It's really an inspiring place, and that's where I felt the most comfortable, and I was on campus and thought to myself, 'This is the place I want to be.'" 
 
At Stanford Raney had great success as part of two NCAA Championship-winning teams. Her top moment? "Definitely my freshman year when we won the NCAA title at home against UCLA," she recalls. "It was the coolest thing to have the home advantage and have all your friends up in the stands. I've never seen Avery Aquatic Center that packed before, and to see the overwhelming support not only from your school, your friends, your family, but also from other spectators wanting to come and experience it was a really cool moment. I just have never seen, witnessed, or been part of any game that intense." In addition to water polo Raney became a published author at the Stanford Business School.
 
Raney enjoyed watching the Women's National Team and looked up to several players early on in her career.
 
"Maggie Steffens is one of the greats; everyone looks up to her," she notes. "I for sure look up to her, and it's cool to play with her now. Also, Natalie Benson (Golda) and Moriah van Norman, I saw them in the Olympics in 2008, and I was like, 'I really want to be like them.' I would say they were probably my role models starting up and seeing them in the Olympics." But in truth she admires all her teammates: "Honestly I look up to all the girls I play with. I admire everyone's strengths. I try to implement what they do in my own game, so I would say there's not really one person I admire specifically."
 
Raney's National Team career got off to a bumpy start as she got cut from her local ODP Zone team, which was the first one she tried out for. But she bounced back and would make the next teams including Cadet, Youth, Junior, Senior, and Beach. She had a great deal of success reaching the podium at every level in events around the world. 
 
Raney then was called up to the Women's Senior National Team for the 2017 year following the 2016 Rio Olympics. "Adam [Krikorian] sent an email to everyone about working out over the summer and training and potentially making rosters for World Championships and various other tournaments," she recalls. "Making the team had been my dream ever since I've been playing water polo. I saw Beijing in 2008 when they lost to Holland by one goal, so it was a dream come true and having two coaches [Natalie Benson and Moriah Van Norman] who'd been on the team before it was cool to follow in their footsteps, and it was just surreal being seen as good enough to make that group. So continually being part of that group is just incredible."
 
The first major Senior FINA event for which Raney was called up was the 2017 FINA World League Super Final followed by the 2017 FINA World Championships. On playing in the World Championships she says, "It was great to have it in Hungary, which is pretty much the Mecca of water polo. Having such a huge crowd with people who actually know water polo and understand the game and have a passion for it is was amazing to play in front of, and the fans were awesome. The venue was incredible and it was a really cool city." She also took away a lot from the experience: I learned that I have a lot to improve. It doesn't matter how you were last game or last performance; it matters what you do now."
 
Following her career at Stanford Raney wasn't sure what was next as she didn't really want to play abroad: "I was fine with staying at home. I'm a stickler for routines, so it was hard for me to go abroad even though I love traveling. I never really saw myself living overseas and playing a sport."
 
But eventually she decided to do just that. Raney would go on to join NC Vouliagmeni in Greece and really enjoyed her time with them as she recalls, "I really enjoyed my time in Greece. I enjoyed the people. I would definitely go again. If not Greece somewhere else because I think it's an invaluable experience to go abroad as you experience different cultures, you meet different people, and you just expand your scope of understanding the world. So, I think it's definitely an experience that I would do again, and I'm glad that I didn't end up chickening out and not going." 
 
While with the club Raney enjoyed many great moments. "We made it to the Final Four (LEN Champions League). We got third. It was fun because a lot of my national team teammates were on the other teams. Maggie Steffens and Kiley Neushul were on C.N. Sabadell and a few others were playing abroad as well, so it was a great experience to play against them and see them in their abroad setting," she says. "I definitely would go back to the same club, or if not another, and hopefully make the final four again." 
 
While at the club she learned a lot, including being more adaptable: "I'm a defender on the National Team, and I've always been a defender, and they did not want me in that role at all, so I definitely learned to be more adaptable and flexible in my position and tried to be more explosive as an attacker instead of a defender. I think that was probably the biggest thing I learned. Also I tried to learn a little bit of Greek, but don't remember any of it, but just trying to learn a different language is another cool aspect of playing abroad."
 
In addition to playing abroad on Vouliagmeni, Jordan is also a part of New York Athletic Club, or NYAC. She is extremely grateful for the continual individual support and opportunities given to her by the club and also its involvement with USA water polo
 
The Women's National Team began 2020 with a three-game series in Australia before traveling to the Netherlands for a game. Recalling the trip Raney says, "It was awesome. We scrimmaged a lot against Australia. We were in Brisbane, and I thought it was a great city—but really hot temperature-wise and not expecting it to be that way because we went in January, but I always forget that their summer is our winter, so I was thinking it would be nice and breezy and cold, but it was like 100 and humid. It was a learning experience playing against Australia. They are a really great team. They're pretty similar to us in how they play. So it was great with the physicality and not simply playing against ourselves because we'd been scrimmaging alone, practicing by ourselves for a little bit, so it was nice going and exposing ourselves to different competition. And of course going across the world is awesome in and of itself. We lost in the second game, and it was tough, but it was a great learning experience and will allow us to grow even better and improve as a team."
 
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the Women's National Team isn't training together at present, so the individual athletes have to work out at home. On what she's been doing Raney says, "We have to be super creative. No access to the pool, oceans just closed, gyms close so you have to be super creative with your workouts, so I've been doing a lot of walking and running. We just set up a little gym in our garage which has been really nice. A lot of body weight stuff but more circuit-oriented body weight workouts. Trying to be creative with my nutrition. Hyper focused on that, trying to hone that in so that when we do start up again, I'll be set on that. I'm also trying to start kickboxing, which is new for me, a different wave of cardio. I'm just trying to stay fit as best I can with no access to water, really. It's been stressful but fun finding new ways to exert my body."
 
On what she'd like to improve when training starts again, she offers that "defending is always something that I'm trying to improve. Communication in defending and also staying away from someone versus being more physical. Different shot selection, being more creative with the types of shots I take and not shooting because I'm used to it or comfortable with that shot, but because it's the right decision. So, seeing where the goalie is or where the defenders are, shot blockers. I also would love to work on explosiveness, driving or just explosiveness with the legs. I would love to work on that, obviously improve my strengths and weaknesses and just be an all-around better player."
 
As the team begins a new march toward the Tokyo Olympics—which have been rescheduled for 2021—Raney has some personal goals she'd like to accomplish: "I'm getting my MBA online at DeVry. A lot of us on the team have been doing that as well, so we're trying to athletically and academically improve ourselves. I'm trying to learn to play the piano right now, too. I really love to sing, so trying to incorporate more of a creative side and growing as well so just trying to have a full realm of hobbies while also focusing on water polo as my priority. Creative side, academic side, athletic side—I'm trying to have the whole package."
 
Lastly Raney offers advice to athletes hoping to make the National Team some day: "I would say see every mistake as an opportunity, not a failure. A failure is often a lesson. And don't get too down on yourself for that, because you're always improving."
 
Click here to read Jordan Raney's Case Study: The Power of Humor in the Olympic Journey