Adam Krikorian

Adam Krikorian (born July 22, 1974) is an American water polo coach and has served as the head coach of the United States women's national water polo team. Bringing the U.S. National Women's team to widespread global recognition, he coached the team to three consecutive gold medals, a gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, a second gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and a third consecutive gold at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Highly accomplished as a collegiate coach, he won 15 NCAA national championships as player, assistant coach, and head coach at the University of California Los Angeles.

Early life Krikorian was born July 22, 1974, in Santa Clara, California, to an Armenian-American family, the youngest son of Gary Krikorian and Joyce (née Srabian). Krikorian is the younger brother of Blake Krikorian and Jason Krikorian, founders of Sling Media. Following his older siblings, Adam's oldest brother Blake played water polo and swam for Mountain View High School, later playing water polo for UCLA. His brother Jason, was also a High School swimmer who later swam for the University of California. Beginning to compete in swimming by age six, Krikorian was a multi-sport athlete by 12, playing soccer, basketball, flag football and baseball. He attended Bubb Elementary and I. N. Graham Middle School in Mountainview, California, but began to play Water Polo at Mountain View High. In Junior High at age 12, Adam swam for the Los Altos Aquatics Club under Coach Ron Usher, averaging 5000 yards once per day, and setting age group records of 26.37 in the 50-yard freestyle, and 1:05.96 in the 100-yard Individual Medley. His coach noted he had good technique, and a particularly strong flutter kick.

Mountain View High School Krikorian, a water polo and swimming standout, attended Mountain View High School By his Sophomore year at Mountain View High in 1989, Krikorian was a first-team All-League Water Polo player in the Santa Clara Valley Conference, and had made Honorable Mention in the All-Peninsula Water Polo team and First Team in the Santa Clara Valley Conference as a Freshman. A stand-out by his senior year, he scored 113 goals for his High School Water Polo team and was named honorable mention All-America. During his high school career, he helped his team to a National Junior Olympic championship.

Krikorian married Annicia, a former accomplished tennis player on the UCLA team, with whom he had two children. They live in Manhattan Beach, California.

Coaching career UCLA Adam Krikorian (far left) and his UCLA Women's Water Polo team honored for winning UCLA's 100th NCAA Championship, 2007.

Mentored in his early coaching career at UCLA by Hall of Fame Coach Guy Baker who had coached him as a player at UCLA, Krikorian became an assistant coach for the UCLA men's water polo team in 1996 and then coached the women's water polo team in 1997. During his coaching career, his UCLA Water Polo teams won 15 national championships, 11 as a head coach, three as an assistant coach and one as a player. As Assistant coach of the UCLA Men's Water Polo, his teams won the NCAA Championship in 1996, and the women's team won titles in 1997 and 1990. While coaching at UCLA, he was recognized as the 2004 national men's water polo coach of the year and the 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2007 national women's water polo coach of the year.

In 2009, Krikorian Was named NCAA Division I Coach of the Year for the fifth consecutive season and sixth time overall by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC).

UCLA Water Polo as National Champions Year Champions Position Winner Loser Records (Overall/Conf.) 1995 NCAA Champions Student-athlete UCLA Men's Water Polo Cal 20-6/8-0 1996 NCAA Champions Asst. Coach UCLA Men's Water Polo USC 24-6/6-2 1997 NCAA Champions Asst. Coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Cal 31-1/6-0 1998 NCAA Champions Asst. Coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Cal 35-1/9-0 1999 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Men's Water Polo Stanford 22-3/8-0 2000 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Men's Water Polo UCSD 19-7/6-2 2000 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo USC 30-5/8-1 2001 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Stanford 18-4/9-1 2003 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Stanford 24-4/8-2 2004 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Men's Water Polo Stanford 25-3/8-0 2005 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Stanford 33-0/12-0 2006 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo USC 29-4/11-1 2007 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo Stanford 28-2/11-1 2008 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo USC 33-0/12-0 2009 NCAA Champions Head coach UCLA Women's Water Polo USC 25-6/9-3

U.S. National Team Taking over for Guy Baker, in March 2009, Krikorian began coaching the Women's U.S. National Water Polo team, soon leading them to the gold medal at the World Championships in Rome, Italy on July 31, 2009, defeating Canada, 6-5.

On August 19, 2016, Krikorian led the USA women to their second consecutive gold medal in the 2016 U.S. Women's Water Polo Team Championship} as they defeated Italy by a score of 12–5 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since breaking through for their first Olympic gold in 2012, the American women's national team have shown dominance in international competition, winning the 2014 World Cup, the 2015 World Championships and three consecutive World League titles in China. In his third consecutive Olympics as head coach,

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. Women under Krikorian as Head Coach finished with their third consecutive gold medal at the 2020 U.S. Women's Water Polo Team Championship defeating Spain 15–14 in the final round.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the U.S. Women's Water Polo team under Krikorian as Head Coach finished fourth and did not medal. Spain took the gold medal, Australia took the Silver, and the Netherlands took the Bronze.