2021 Hall of Fame Inductee: Tony Azevedo

Considered perhaps the greatest men's water polo player the United States has ever seen, Tony Azevedo's career almost never happened. Born in Brazil, Azevedo overcame a life-threatening neck injury as a child to emerge from water polo-rich Long Beach, CA, under the guidance of aquatic legends like Klaus Barth. Taught the finer points of the game by his dad, Ricardo—a longtime player and coach at the National Team level—Tony served as a ball boy at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, a moment that foreshadowed what was to come. On the heels of a dominant prep career at the storied powerhouse Long Beach Wilson, Azevedo made his Olympic debut as a player in the 2000 Sydney Games, just months removed from his senior prom. The 18-year-old Azevedo then embarked on a transformational run with Stanford University that saw him win two NCAA championships and set an almost certainly unbreakable record of four-straight Cutino Award honors as the college game's best player. He returned to the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 while launching an international club career that spanned more than a decade capping up for top clubs across Europe and Brazil including JUG, CAN Bissolati, and JK Primorac among others. Domestically, Azevedo hauled in countless titles for the New York Athletic Club. In 2008, he captained a U.S. team that returned to the Olympic podium for the first time in 20 years, claiming a Silver medal at the Beijing Games. He continued to serve as captain at the next two Olympic Games, culminating his career in a full-circle moment back in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. A five-time Pan American Games Gold medalist, Azevedo added FINA World League Silver medals and ended his career as the all-time leading scorer in FINA World Championship history. He remains entrenched in the game as co-founder of 6-8 Sports—which merges water polo and technology—conducting camps and clinics around the country.