Ellen Estes

Stanford University Estes studied and played water polo at Stanford University, where she was managed by Head Coach John Tanner and had a collegiate career total of 214 goals. Leading a strong program, Tanner was credited with 10 NCAA championship team titles as Head Coach for Women's water polo at Stanford from 1998-2026. In her Senior year, Estes was part of Stanford's 2002 NCAA National Championship Team. She was a two-time All-American, and broke a Stanford scoring record with 93 goals in her sophomore year. As a Freshman at Stanford in 1997, Estes totaled 49 goals, the second highest scorer on the team, made All-America second team, and was MPSF Northern Division First-Team. As a Junior, she had the third most goals scored for the team with 37. She took off time from Stanford in 1999 to train with the U.S. Olympic team. She graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree at Stanford, and studied roller-coaster design as an intern with Disney.

Olympics 2000 Sydney silver medal In 2000, under the coaching of women's Olympic Head Coach Guy Baker, she won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 2000 Olympic women's water polo team competition. The Sydney Olympics were the first to offer water polo as a women's sport. Estes scored a goal in the U.S. team's first game against Australia, where the U.S. team lost 7-6. Australia won four of their first five matches, and were seeded first advancing to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Australia and the U.S. team defeated Russia and the Netherlands, 7-6 and 6-5, respectively, removing them from medal contention. In the final match for the gold and silver medals, the US team were ahead 2-1 over Australia at halftime. With only 13 seconds remaining on the clock, the U.S. team scored bringing the game to a 3-3 tie, but with just 1.3 seconds left in the game, Australia scored on a penalty shot, winning the gold medal, 4-3, with the U.S. taking the silver. The women's team from Russia took the bronze medal.

International competition highlights Estes played water polo for Team USA from 1999-2004.

In international competition in 2003, Estes played with the U.S. team that won the gold medal at the FINA World Championships and the Pan American Games. She also won a team silver medal at the 2002 World Cup with the U.S. team, and a silver medal from the Pan American Games in Barcelona in 1999.

Honors In 2012, she was inducted into the USA Water Polo Hall of Fame.

Performances Olympic Games: Silver Medal (2000), Bronze Medal (2004) World Championships: Gold Medal (2003) Pan American Games: Second Place (1999) FINA World Cup: Second Place (2002)