Ryder Dodd

Ryder Michal Dodd (born 19 January 2006) is an American water polo player. He won a bronze medal in Water Polo representing the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He was a student-athlete at UCLA, an attacker on the men's water polo team. On June 7, 2025, he was awarded the Peter J. Cutino Award as the best men's collegiate water polo player of the year for the 2024 season.

Dodd was born in Long Beach, California to Janet and Steve Dodd on January 19, 2006. His older brother Chase played water polo for UCLA. Ryder played water polo first for Huntington Beach High School from 2020-2021, and then from 2022-2024 for Junípero Serra High School, a Catholic High School in Gardena, California. During High School, he earned All American honors six times, despite taking off his Senior High School year to train for the Olympics. Branisavljevic started the club around 2013 with partner Uros Dzelebdzic, after leaving Huntington Beach Water Polo Club, where he coached for a year from 2008-9. Branisavljevic had played water polo for Long Beach City College, and had earlier played professionally for the Serbian professional team Spartak Subotica originally a soccer or "football" club known as FK Spartak Subotica.

2024 Paris Olympic Bronze medal Dodd represented the United States, winning a team bronze medal in Water Polo at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Dodd's brother Chase at 24, also made the U.S. team. The Serbian men's team, that had won the prior two Olympics in Water Polo, took the gold, with the Croatian Men's Water Polo team taking the Silver medal. In the semi-finals, the Serbian team defeated the American Men's Water Polo team 10-6, and defeated the Croatia in the final round, 13-11. The U.S. Men's Water Polo team's prior Olympic medal had been a silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, giving the U.S. men's team sixteen years prior to again taking the medal podium in 2024. Dodd was the youngest player on the U.S. team, and, as an important contributor, scored a total of eight goals during the Olympics. The American team, with Dodd's participation, placed second at the 2025 World Aquatics Men's U20 Water Polo Championships in Croatia in June, 2025, and eighth in the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore in July, 2025, with an eighth overall rank. His UCLA team won the NCAA men's water polo championship in 2024. In 2024, at the NCAA Championship, Dodd was voted the most valuable player at the tournament, and the same year, made the All-Tournament NCAA First Team. Dodd was the winner of the Peter J. Cutino Award for 2024 and 2025 as the top male NCAA water polo player.