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 makes it all the more special that I can finally say my childhood dream has come true.
" Australia got into the gold medal game in the 10-team women's water polo tournament at the Paris Olympics. It ultimately fell 11-9 to Spain, which won its first-ever women's water polo gold medal. The United States, which had dominated the sport in recent Olympics and international competitions, came in fourth after losing the bronze medal game to the Netherlands.
Jackovich, now 29 years old, and her brother Petar attended Sunday School every week at St. Sava, where they attained perfect attendance as kids. She sang in the church choir and her brother served as an altar boy.
"Dani’s solid academic focus and hard work was apparent during her high school years as she earned the position of valedictorian of Lincolnway Central High in New Lenox. Both Dani and her brother Petar have inherited the Pujo athletic genes. from their paternal grandmother, Radmila (Pujo).
Daniel played football at Utah State," St. Sava said in a social media post. "Petar earned a scholarship and was recruited to the water polo team at the U.
S. Air Force Academy. The Pujo, Jackovich, and Erkman families were outstanding members and supporters of St.
Sava Church. Dani is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in biomechanical engineering." The church hopes to have a luncheon to celebrate her and Stevan Mićić, another former church member who had to bow out of Olympic competition because of an injured knee, her godmother Melanie Sever said.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts "We'd like to see this medal and acknowledge these young adults because they're both special," Sever said. Sever just had a Facetime call with her Monday. "The medal was in a beautiful box and all the ladies in church we're asking if they could see," Sever said.
"She's overwhelmed. It hasn't hit her yet." She's wanted to win an Olympic medal since she was a kid.
"We're so excited. She worked so hard. She never gave up on her dream," she said.
"Australia wasn't expected to win a medal in water polo." Members of St. Sava watched all her games, often texting each other about the highlights or asking when the next game was.
"I was jumping out of my skin screaming and yelling and hollering," Sever said. "It was a lot of fun. Everybody in the church wanted to watch.
It's so much more fun when you know someone who's playing. The church probably wouldn't have watched otherwise as water polo is not a sport older people watch." It's also not a sport that's played at the youth level in Indiana, but it is in neighboring Illinois.
"She started swimming in New Lenox and got into water polo when she was young," Sever said. "One July 4th weekend the Harvard coach called her but she chose Stanford over Harvard because it had the better program. She wanted to be in the Olympics since she was young.
" She was a high achiever both athletically and academically, Sever said. "Her personality motivated her," Sever said. "She had the drive.
She always wanted to do it and got to do her dream. She's a really nice young lady. She's really sweet and thoughtful.
She's always had this drive.".
