Alex Rousseau

Alex Dominique Rousseau (born November 4, 1967) is an American former water polo player who competed for the University of California Los Angeles. He participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Rousseau worked as a Los Angeles County lifeguard, model and actor, and later traded equities with the Jones Trading Company.

University California Los Angeles From 1985 to 1990, he attended and played water polo for the University of California Los Angeles, under long serving Water Polo Hall of Fame Head Coach Bob Horn, a former player for Long Beach State, who also served as an Olympic coach. Rousseau captained the team in 1989, and was team high scorer in each of the four years he played. He received All American honors at UCLA in four years, and was a 1989 NCAA Most Valuable Player. He helped take UCLA to an NCAA national championship in 1989, as a decisive player in a 13–10 win over semi-final opponent University of Southern California, where he was credited with a game-changing eight goals. where the US team placed fourth overall among 12 competing countries. Spain and Yugoslavia were the strong pre-Olympic favorites. In an important preliminary game with the German team essential to get the U.S. team to the semi-finals, Rousseau scored two second half goals to lead the U.S. team to a 7–2 win.

In semi-final play, the U.S. team had a disappointing close loss to Spain 6-4, and Italy defeated the European Unified Team 9-8. The final match between Italy and Spain became the longest ever played in Olympic history with Italy finally winning the gold after six overtimes. Spain took the silver medal, and the Unified team took the bronze.

1996 Atlanta Olympics He later participated in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, under Head Coach Richard Corso where the US team placed seventh overall among 12 competing countries. Though Hungary and Italy were the strong pre-Olympic favorites, Spain defeated Hungary 7–6 in the semi-finals. In the final game Spain beat Croatia, and captured the gold medal with a score of 7-5, leaving Croatia the silver medal, and pre-game favorite Italy the bronze.

He played professional water polo for C.N. Marseilles and Rome's Lazio Nuoto from 1990 to 1993, and 1997-1999 respectively.

Honors In 2004, he was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame. A high scoring standout during his collegiate years, Rousseau was inducted into the UCLA Hall of Fame in 2011.