Alex Bowen

Alexander Brant "Alex" Bowen (born September 4, 1993) is an American water polo player who competed for Stanford University and participated in water polo with three successive U.S. Water Polo teams from 2016-2024, winning a team bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Early life Bowen was born September 4, 1993, in San Diego, to Rod and Barbara Bowen and attended Santana High School, in Santee, California, graduating in 2011. He was the older of two male siblings, with a younger brother Eric. Beginning with a smaller club, he soon trained and competed with the San Diego Shores Water Polo Club where he was instrumental in leading the team in 2010 to a third-place finish at the Junior Olympics and a 2011 Junior Olympics fourth-place finish.

For his High School team, Bowen competed in both swimming and water polo, as a Junior captaining the water polo team, and as a senior captaining the swim team. During the High School water polo season which he played from August-November, he led Santana High to the 2007 and 2008 Grossmont North League titles, and then in 2009 and 2010, led Santana to Grossmont Valley League titles. A prolific scorer in his High School career, he led Santana to a record 547 goals for the CIF San Diego Section and as a High School Senior was a CIF San Diego Section Player of the Year.

During his collegiate career, Bowen had the eighth most career goals in the history of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. He graduated Stanford as their first four-time Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) First Team All-American receiving the honor in each of his four years at Stanford. As a Senior, he was a Peter J. Cutino Award finalist.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. Men's team finished 10th overall, again under U.S. Head Olympic Coach Dejan Udovičić, with Serbia taking the Gold and Croatia the silver.

Professional play From 2016-2020 prior to the 2024 Olympics, Bowen played with European professional teams to maintain his competitiveness and conditioning. He played with teams that included Steaua Bucharest, Partizan in Serbia, three years with Miskolc in Hungary from 2016-2019, and later Mladost Zagreb from 2019-2020. He has more recently played with France's Noisy‑le‑Sec team.