This feature originally appeared in the 2021 Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.




It will be a full circle experience for Johnny Hooper when he suits up for Team USA at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.
 
Hooper is a four-time All-American who starred for the Golden Bear water polo program from 2015-18. He also has dual citizenship with the United States and Japan; his mother, Mimi, is a native of Kumakura and his grandmother, Tomiko Nagatani, lives close to Yokohama. The opportunity to play in his first Olympics in Tokyo hits home.
 
"I'm very close with my Japanese roots. It's special to soon play in Tokyo, a place I'm very familiar with," said Hooper, who was born in Los Angeles. "My love for Japan, the people, the culture, resonates deeply. At the same time, I'll be there fully repping Team USA."
 
Since concluding his decorated collegiate career at Cal – which included winning the 2016 NCAA title, ranking second on the program's all-time goals list (245) and being selected as a finalist for the 2018-19 Peter J. Cutino Award, earned annually by the best NCAA men's and women's water polo players – Hooper's trajectory as a key attacker for the U.S. has steadily risen.
 
Hooper joins a long line of Golden Bears who have represented the United States at the Olympics, including Cal head coach Kirk Everist (1992, 1996). In total, 22 Bears, including 18 Americans, have made Olympic water polo rosters or coaching staffs dating back to 1924. Cal greats John Mann, a two-time Olympian, and Luca Cupido, Hooper's former collegiate teammate and current national teammate, were members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic team that placed 10th in Rio. Hooper, although fresh off a dynamic rookie season in Berkeley, did not make the team. Five years removed from that experience, Hooper is ready to make his mark in Tokyo.
 
"I was young leading up to Rio, and was trying to make a team that was full of veterans," Hooper reflected. "(Five-time Olympian) Tony Azevedo, an idol of mine, was on that team and playing my position. You just have to take those kinds of experiences as motivation and grow. There's a higher level of trust now between myself and my coaches and teammates."
 
Hooper has excelled in international play since making his national team debut in the spring of 2017, including scoring a team-high 24 goals at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, and impressed during various training legs in the past months building up to the Olympics. But Hooper's latest developments as a water polo star can be traced back to playing professionally in Europe throughout the past year.
 
Hooper was one of nearly 20 American water polo players who joined European professional teams after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the U.S. team's training. He played for Palaio Faliro in Greece, scoring 40 goals across all competitions to help the team place ninth in the A1 Ethniki League. Had the Tokyo Games remained on schedule for 2020, Hooper said roughly just four Americans would have played professionally overseas ahead of Olympic competition. Now, the U.S. players will head to Tokyo with the added experience of playing against some of the world's best in Europe.
 
"To play at the highest level of water polo, you have to go overseas and pay your dues," Hooper said. "It's the difference between the good and the great players; playing in Europe molds you into a new player and for me, it really raised my IQ level. Having that exposure to how the game is played around the world is invaluable, and my teammates and I are ready to take those experiences with us to Tokyo."