BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Indiana University alumna Shae (Fournier) La Roche was featured in a story on 980 CJME in Regina, Saskatchewan, as the former Hoosier makes her inaugural trip to the Olympics as part of Team Canada.
To read the story, CLICK HERE.
A 2014 graduate of Indiana, La Roche (2011-2014) is one of the most decorated players in Hoosiers’ water polo history. She holds the top two school records for single-season goals (95 in 2014, 83 in 2013) and career goals (305), and is second in IU history in career steals (311). She was the 2014 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Player of the Year, and earned second team Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches (ACWPC) All-America and College Sport Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) First-Team Academic All-America honors. La Roche is one of five players in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history to score 300 or more goals in her career.
The Most Valuable Player of the 2014 CWPA Championship hosted by Bucknell University for leading the Hoosiers to an 11-10 victory over Princeton University, La Roche is among a select group of Indiana women’s water polo players who won a pair of league titles during their tenure. In 2011 as a freshman, La Roche helped her squad down the University of Michigan, 5-3, at home in Bloomington for the program’s first title since taking home the 2003 crown.
She had an impressive junior international career, winning gold medals at the 2008 and 2010 Pan American Junior Championships to go with a sixth place finish at the 2009 FINA World Junior Championships. At the senior level, she competed in two FINA World Championships (2015, 2017) and captured a silver medal at the 2017 FINA World League Super Final. She also helped Canada win silver at the 2015 Pan American Games. She has made two appearances at the Summer Universiade, just missing the podium with fourth place finishes in both 2009 and 2013. She made her senior international debut in 2014, competing in the FINA Water Polo World League.
This is the first time since 2004 that Canada has qualified a women’s water polo team for the Olympic Games as 10 nations will compete in the Olympic tournament during the Tokyo Games. Canada qualified for the Olympics courtesy a silver medal at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games.
The Canadian water polo team will open its Olympic tournament with a match against Australia on July 24 (Day 1). The final day of women’s water polo matches will be August 7 (Day 15) and will include classification matches and the medal matches. Water polo will be played at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre.
