Alys Williams

Alys Nicole Williams (born May 28, 1994), also known after 2020 by her married name Alys Nicole Williams Moore is an American water polo player who competed for the University of California Los Angeles. She has served as a member of the United States women's national water polo team, and participated in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the 2020 Women's water polo competition. Immediately following the 2020 Olympics, she served as an Assistant Coach for the women's team at the University of California Irvine, and was announced as the Head Coach for the Olympic Water Polo Development's Youth Team in February 2024. Alys grew up in Huntington Beach and attended Edison High School, graduating in 2012. Lettering for four years in Varsity Water Polo at Edison, she dropped her participation in soccer and basketball and gained focus training and competing under Edison High Coach Diggy Riley. Recognized as exceptional among her fellow high school athletes, in 2012 she was an Athlete of the Year for Edison High. In Edison school honors, she held the all-time record for water polo total career goals with 353, as well as the record for assists with 214. An able student, she earned All-American honors in High School Academics in 2012.

In club competition, Williams began playing for the Huntington Beach Club in her first year of High School, where one of her primary coaches was 2004 and 2008 Olympic water polo medalist Natalie Golda, a former standout for UCLA. Representing Huntington Beach, Alys made All-American honors in 2009, 2010, and 2012 in Junior Olympic competition, and placed first with the Huntington Club water polo team in the Junior Olympics in 2011 and second in 2012.

University of California Los Angeles

Williams attended University of California, Los Angeles, as a Psychology major, and graduated in 2017. She took off much of 2016 to train with the U.S. National team, but was unable to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. Playing water polo under Hall of Fame UCLA Coach, Adam Krikorian, she earned All-American honors in four years and was part of the nationally dominant UCLA women's teams that won the NCAA National Championship in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

International competition highlights Williams played on the U.S. national team that that won gold medals at the World Championships in 2015 in Kazan in Tartarstan, Russia, in 2017 in Budapest, Hungary and in 2019 in Gwanju, China where she scored four goals.

2020 Tokyo Olympic gold Williams participated in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, under Head Olympic Coach Adam Krikorian, where she won a team gold medal, and scored a total of eight goals in the Women's water polo team competition. In 2020, the United States was a distinct pre-Olympic favorite to win the gold medal, having captured the two previous Olympic medals in 2012 and 2016 under Krikorian, as well as having won the 2015, 2017, and 2019 World Championships.

Careers Williams played water polo professionally for Spain's CN St. Andrew from 2017 to 2018 which reached the League Finals.