Danijela "Dani" Jackovich, who attended St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Merrillville, won the medal as part of the Australian women's water polo team. She grew up in south suburban New Lenox and drove about an hour to St.
Sava, which started in Gary more than a century ago and is now located at 9191 Mississippi St. in Merrillville. It's where her parents Daniel and Desa Jackovich worshipped when they were kids.
An achiever at both athletics and academics, Jackovich earned valedictorian at Lincolnway Central High in New Lenox and went on to Stanford University, where she studied biomechanical engineering and won three NCAA championships as a standout on the women's water polo team. She was a two-time All-American who scored 106 goals and racked up 11 hat tricks in college. She moved to Australia in 2019 to play water polo.
She lives in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, Australia's largest city internationally known for its famed Sydney Opera House. She competes for the Cronulla Sharks senior club team and earned her place in her first Olympics as a center forward on the Aussie Stingers National Team, which came in fifth at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. "It's a surreal feeling," said Jackovich in a Stanford University news release.
"My path to realizing this dream hasn't been the most conventional. There was a point where I believed the dream would never come true, but my love for the sport kept me playing and traveling the world. The journey I've taken to get to this point m.