US water polo coaches returning for Paris Olympics…

CHICAGO (AP) — Right after the Summer Olympics, Adam Krikorian was done. Worn down by coaching the U.S. women’s water polo team through a pandemic, he thought it might be time to try something new.

Some two months after Tokyo, long after the glow of a third consecutive gold medal had worn off, Krikorian was still in the same place. Then, as he examined what went right and wrong during the previous Olympic cycle, everything began to change.

“As the months went on, I became more and more passionate about and excited about trying to make those improvements,” Krikorian told the AP in a phone interview, “to make the experience better for myself and for all those around me.”

That’s how he got from the exhaustion he felt after the U.S. routed Spain 14-5 in the Tokyo final on Aug. 7 to Tuesday, when USA Water Polo announced Krikorian and men’s coach Dejan Udovicic are staying on through the 2024 Olympics.

The continuity at the top — far from a given after the challenges in the runup to this year’s Games — is a coup for each program with Paris coming up on the horizon. While the women are going for an unprecedented fourth consecuti