Laguna Beach native Annika Dries inducted into USA Water Polo Hall of Fame
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Annika Dries has shown passion in every pursuit she takes.
From a standout career in water polo to a study of internal medicine, the Laguna Beach native has consistently shown the push necessary to generate success.
“I think what she does as an Olympian and athlete is very similar to what she does as a doctor,” said Dries’ mother, composer Pamela Madsen. “She leads a team.”
Dries was honored for her talent in the pool on Friday, as she was one of four inductees into the 2026 class of the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame at a luncheon ceremony held in Brea.
Dries, now 34, helped lead Laguna Beach High to its first girls’ water polo CIF championship in 2009. Three years later, she helped the U.S. women’s water polo national team taste Olympic gold for the first time at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
At Stanford University, Dries won NCAA championships in 2011 and 2014, earning MVP honors in both years. She was also a two-time winner of the Peter J. Cutino Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate water polo player.
“It’s an absolutely incredible honor,” Dries said of her Hall of Fame induction. “I’m totally humbled by the legends of water polo that I’d be joining with this group. Just the community of water polo … is an intense, amazing community that has resonated across all of the facets of my life.”
During her speech, she thanked the coaches of her youth, Chad Beeler and Ethan Damato. Dries got into water polo through her involvement in the Laguna Junior Lifeguard Program.
Her success was followed by the Olympic triumphs of Laguna Beach sisters Makenzie and Aria Fischer in 2016 and 2020. At the high school level, Damato built his alma mater into the top girls’ program in the country, with five CIF Southern Section Division 1 titles between 2014 and 2019.
Dries helped set the framework. Her roommate at the 2012 Olympics, fellow USA Water Polo Hall of Famer Heather Petri, said in a video tribute that “kindness,” “cerebral” and “fierceness” were three words she would use to describe Dries.
Hall of Fame member Jessica Steffens, a key defender on that 2012 Olympic team, remembers welcoming Dries onto the Stanford team as a freshman.
“I remember thinking, ‘This human has so much strength, so much intelligence,’” Steffens said in the video. “Annika is also the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, which is quite different than her personality in the pool. I think that explains so much about her character. She is so passionate about where she puts her energy and where she puts her focus. With that focus, she can do almost anything.”
In recent years, that pursuit has been medicine. Her family history at least partly inspired that choice; her parents are both cancer survivors, and her mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor.
Madsen was first diagnosed in 2006, when her daughter was in high school.
“I think a goal of mine was always to make it to the Olympics, to make it to the podium and to have her be there, right?” Dries said, referring to her mom. “That got threatened when she got diagnosed. Her ability to make each one of those tournaments and each one of those events really fueled a lot of fire in me.”
Dries, who is now married, earned her medical degree from Stanford and is wrapping up her residency in internal medicine with UCLA Health. She has also conducted extensive research in sports cardiology and cardiovascular genetics.
Other inductees into the 2026 USA Water Polo Hall of Fame included two-time men’s water polo Olympian Peter Hudnut, accomplished San Diego State women’s water polo coach Carin Crawford and East Coast player and coaching standout Chris Judge.
