Native Hawaiian Tumua Anae Wins Water Polo Gold Medal at Olympic Games

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Entertainment. Discussion »

Tumua Anae, Native Hawaiian, takes the Gold

LONDON, ENGLAND – "The best thing about water polo: Being part of a team that's striving to achieve something much bigger than any one individual" is listed on Native Hawaiian's Tumua Anae's profile on the USA Water Polo website.

With that attitude, she now will return to the United States from the 2012 London Olympic Games with a Gold Medal. She is a goalkeeper on Team USA's women's water polo team, which won the Gold Medal on Thursday night. Team USA beat Spain 8-5 at the Water Polo Arena.

“Loving the moment, I will always love this team!! GOLD BABY,”

a jubilant Anae tweeted her followers after the victory over Spain.

Tumua Anae(2nd left) and the Gold Medal US Water Polo Team

In college at USC, Anae was a finalist for 2010 Peter J. Cutino Award and a member of the 2010 NCAA Championship team and was also named 1st Team All American team, where she was also named to before on the 2008 and 2009.

After graduation, Anae joined the National Team and has performed phenomenal as a goalie. She had recorded sixteen saves at the 2012 FINA World League Super final and tallied seven saves in a backup role, helping Team USA to a Gold Medal and Olympic berth at the 2011 Pan American Games. Tumua logged eight saves as backup goalie en route to a sixth place finish at the 2011 FINA World Championships and also recorded eight saves as backup goalie during Gold Medal run at 2011 FINA World League Super Final in Tianjin, China.

Anae was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and makes her home in Newport Beach, California.

posted August 10, 2012 10:50 am edt