Photo: Stanford and China's national team share the pool following an exhibition at Avery Aquatic Center on February 14, 2019.
STANFORD, Calif. – No strangers to representing Stanford on a global stage, the Cardinal women's water polo program is heading to China this summer for a trip that includes culture and competition, a week of water polo followed by a week of exploration at a couple of stops in the country.
Running from June 23 – July 8, the Cardinal will start and end the trip training with and competing against the Chinese National Team. In between, the team will tour sites in an around Chengdu, where they are being hosted by China's Water Polo Federation, and also visit the Tibetan Plateau of Western Sichuan province.
"We talk often about the women in our program pursuing world-class opportunities on and off campus and embracing all facets of their Stanford experiences," Dunlevie Family Director of Women's Water Polo John Tanner said. "We feel blessed that this fully-integrated, globally-relevant experience has already begun and will continue through our trip and long after we return."
The Cardinal has been ambassadors for the sport of water polo, Stanford University and the United States before. Four years ago, the Cardinal served as the U.S. representative at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea. That trip included a number of memorable experiences outside of the pool, highlighted by a pair of meetings with Mark Lippert, the United States Ambassador to South Korea at the time and a Stanford alumnus, and a dinner at his residence in Seoul.
"I have really been impressed with the Stanford women's water polo team's preparation for their trip to China," said Karl Eikenberry, a retired United States Army lieutenant general who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan from April 2009 to July 2011. "They are learning about the culture, the language and the customs. These are a great group of student-athletes who will be ready to compete in Chengdu - and they will also be ready to serve as superb Stanford University and people-to-people ambassadors."
Eikenberry, who is currently the Director of the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative and faculty member at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford, served as the team's honorary captain for an exhibition it hosted against China at Avery Aquatic Center on Feb. 14.
For the past few years, the Chinese National Team has spent up to three months of the year in California, competing against collegiate and high-level club teams. Because of the Cardinal's quality of play and the collaborative environment surrounding the program and campus, China invited Stanford to train with them in Chengdu leading up to the 2019 Aquatics World Championships from July 12-28 in Gwangju.
Stanford's preparations for the trip began in earnest weeks ago with the formation of a robust seminar series covering Chinese history, culture and language, Sino-American relations, development economics examining health and education in rural China, entrepreneurship and diplomacy.
The seminar series, which was organized by Amy Zegart, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies (FSI), professor of political science at Stanford and contributing editor to The Atlantic, took input from students about topics they want to learn most about prior to the trip. Meetings occur every three weeks with faculty invited from across campus to join the team for dinner and lead a session.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime educational and diplomatic experience for these student-athletes and they are embracing it with zeal," Zegart said. "I have loved being a part of Coach Tanner's vision for this trip and getting to know the players in our seminars. These students are hungry to learn -- they ask probing questions, they'll try anything and want to learn everything. They bring the fearlessness of their sport right into the classroom and it's something special to see."
"That Dr. Zegart, Ambassador Eikenberry and a handful of other globally preeminent scholars and teachers are guiding our trip preparation is stunning and a huge honor for us," Tanner added. "It's also extraordinary to be guests of China's Water Polo Federation, who are providing a world class water polo and cultural experience in Chengdu."
The trip has also received financial backing from the Pac-12 as part of the conference's global efforts to promote goodwill and showcase the Pac-12 and its member institutions around the world through student-athlete exchanges and sport.
"Providing our student-athletes with educational experiences such as this while fostering cultural exchange is at the root of our Pac-12 Global initiative," said Jamie Zaninovich, Pac-12 deputy commissioner and chief operating officer. "We are excited for the Stanford women's water polo team to have this opportunity and to continue to grow the popularity of Pac-12 athletic programs and universities with our Chinese audience."