Brenda Villa

About Brenda Villa

Brenda Villa (born April 18, 1980) is an accomplished American water polo player. She is the most decorated athlete in the world of women’s water polo.Villa was named Female Water Polo Player of the Decade for 2000-2009 by the FINA Aquatics World Magazine

Olympics and international:

Villa has been on Team USA since 1998. Although the shortest player on the US national women's water polo team at 5'4", Villa has been a prolific scorer at the international level. She scored 10 goals for Team USA at the 2003 Pan American Games, which qualified the team for the 2004 Summer Olympics. As a 20-year-old, she led the US team with nine goals at the Sydney Olympics, where the Americans took the silver medal. She had a team-high 13 goals to lead the US to gold at the 2003 FINA Water Polo World Championship. In June 2004, Villa scored the first goal in overtime, her third of the game, and another in a penalty shootout, to propel the US team past Hungary and win the gold medal at the Women's Water Polo World League Super Finals. She was the US women's team top scorer with 7 goals in 5 games at the 2004 Athens Olympics, earning a bronze medal. Villa was team captain of the 2005 US national team coached by two-time Olympian Heather Moody, winning a silver medal at the FINA World Championship in Montreal.

In 2005, Villa became assistant coach of the women's water polo team at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California. The Falcons ended the season with a 21-11 record, a new school record for most wins in a season. She is now playing professionally for the Italian power team Geymonat Orizzonte in Catania, Sicily, which won the LEN Women's Champions' Cup in 2005 and 2006.

In March 2007 Villa led the USA women's national water polo team in Melbourne, Australia, at the 2007 FINA World Water Polo Championships. Villa scored a total of 11 goals throughout the whole tournament helping team USA achieve first place naming them the 2007 FINA World Champions.

In the 2008 China Summer Olympic games, she and the American team lost 8-9 in the championship game to the Netherlands and took home the silver medal.

In June 2009, Villa was named to the USA water polo women's senior national team for the 2009 FINA World Championships. In 2010 she became the head coach at Castilleja High School for girls' water polo in Palo Alto, California.

In the 2012 London Summer Olympic games, she and the American team won 8-5 in the championship game to Spain and took home the gold medal, the Americans' first in 4 Olympics water polo competitions.

Brenda Villa Achievements

Olympic Games:

-2012 Summer Olympics-Gold

-2000 Summer Olympics-Silver

-2008 Summer Olympics-Silver

-2004 Summer Olympics-Bronze

World Championships:

2003 World Aquatics Championships-Gold

2007 World Aquatics Championships-Gold

2009 World Aquatics Championships-Gold

2005 World Aquatics Championships-Silver

Pan American Games:

2003 Pan American Games-Gold

2007 Pan American Games-Gold

2011 Pan American Games-Gold

FINA World Cup:

2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup-Gold

The 2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup was the fifteenth edition of the event, organised by the world's governing body in aquatics, the International Swimming Federation (FINA). The event took place in Christchurch, New Zealand from 17 to 22 August 2010.

FINA World League:

2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World Cup

2004 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2006 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2007 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2009 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2010 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2011 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2012 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Gold

2008 FINA Women's Water Polo World League-Silver