Chris Oeding

Christopher Oeding (born September 10, 1971) is a former American water polo player and a more recent coach, who competed for the University of California Berkeley, and participated in the men's water polo tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Oeding later had a career as a water polo coach, first at Orange Coast College and then served as the water polo coach at Long Beach City College beginning in 2000, where he led the team to seven state championships through 2025. He has worked as a Women's U.S. National team Assistant coach, and served as a coach to the women's team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Jainero where they won the gold medal, at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo where they won another gold, and at the 2024 Paris Olympics where the women's team placed fourth.

Oeding earned honors as the CIF's Player of the year in 1988, leading Corona del Mar in scoring that year. Chris originally competed in swimming before taking up water polo, becoming a starter in his High School Sophomore year. Chris's brother Jeff, who played for Stanford and may have inspired Chris to pursue the sport, also played water polo for Corona del Mar, and helped lead the team to the CIF Southern Section championship finals in 1984. During Chris's tenure with the team, the Corona del Mar High School team won the CIF Southern Section 4A Championship in both 1987 and 1988, with Chris scoring critical goals in both games. In 1988, Oeding was a Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, and a High School Water Polo First Team honoree. In 1988, was also recognized as a CIF All-Southern Section honoree for his second consecutive year, and considered by several water polo coaches to be one of the nation's top players.

University of California Berkeley Coached and trained by Head Coach Steve Heaston, Oeding attended and played water polo for the University of California Berkeley on a scholarship, where he helped lead the team to a remarkable three successive national Championships from 1990-1992 at the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships. Oeding's 1992 water polo squad finished the year with an unbeaten 31-0 season record.

Oeding trained and competed with the U.S. Senior National Team from around 1993-2001, where one of his coaches was former Long Beach City College Coach Monte Nitzkowski, who had also served as an Olympic coach. where the US team placed seventh overall among 12 competing countries. A standout player, Oeding was the second highest scorer on the U.S. Olympic team, and his 11 goals for 23 shots was the highest goal per shots taken, at 48 percent was the highest on the US team.

Honors He was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame in 2024 for his accomplishments both as a coach and athlete. In 2021, he led the women's national water polo team to a Gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and helped lead the women's team to a fourth place finish at the Paris Olympics in 2024.