Szonja Golopencza, the Budapest-based UVSE Water Polo Club’s goalkeeper, recently proved her worth as a member of the women’s national team when she competed in her first major international tournament: the European Water Polo Championship in Portugal. She describes the competition as a defining experience: “I will cherish this memory for a very long time,” she says, especially because she played a key role in the semi-finals, helping the team reach the finals where they ultimately won the silver medal.
In addition to her sporting career, she must also devote constant attention to her studies. She is a second-year physiotherapy student at the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her days follow a strict schedule. “I usually start with a training session in the morning, then I head to the university, and in the evening, I have another training session,” she says, summarizing her daily routine. As a competitive athlete, she follows an individual curriculum, but she still has limited time for studying and must constantly reorganize her schedule. According to her, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out when to fit in studying and relaxing outside of class hours.
Her decision to pursue a career as a physiotherapist stems from both family and personal motivations. Szonja’s parents are doctors, and her grandfather, Pál Golopencza, served as chief physician at the National Ambulance Service (OMSZ) for 50 years, so the healthcare field has always felt like a natural fit for her. “Somehow, it’s in my blood,” she says. However, she found her specific path through the world of sports – since she can apply physiotherapy to all kinds of sports – which is why she ultimately chose this field. Her family plays a decisive role in her life in every way. Both her sister and brother play water polo, as does their father, Dr. Péter Golopencza, who serves as the team physician for UVSE, so sports are clearly a shared interest within the family. “This background not only provides emotional support, but also professional guidance,” says Sonja, adding that her parents had always emphasized that her studies should not take a back seat to sports.
She shares that conducting her studies convinced her that she had made the right decision. She particularly enjoys training programs that offer hands-on experience, and she finds her hospital rotations to be a very positive experience. Of the insights she gained at the Department of Orthopedics, she highlighted the phenomenon of the so-called phantom pain, which she found especially fascinating and which clearly demonstrated the complex challenges a physical therapist faces.
She began her sports career with an early change of direction. She started out as a synchronized swimmer and switched to water polo at age 12. Although the decision was somewhat influenced by a change in coaches, she quickly gained her footing in the new environment. From the beginning, she was drawn to the goalkeeper position, and she soon began to make strides there. After finding success in the U20 age group, she gradually moved closer to joining the adult national team. She came within a hair’s breadth of qualifying several times before finally making it.
Juggling two demanding roles can be mentally challenging, too. Sonja admits that she’s a perfectionist, a trait she adopted from sports. This isn’t always an advantage at university: She had a hard time coping with her first failed exam, but she admits that the experience ultimately led her to an important realization: She came to understand that it’s impossible to perform perfectly in every situation, and that she has to accept that.
She doesn’t have much free time, but she tries to use it to recharge. She spends time with her partner, friends, and family whenever she can. Since she usually has a game on weekends, her downtime is mostly limited to one day.
Her short-term goal is to qualify for the national water polo team competing in the World Cup. Important matches also await her at the club level. In the long term, she has set a clear path for herself: She wants to work with athletes as a physiotherapist, so these two areas will remain closely intertwined in her life.
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Eszter Keresztes
Translation: Judit Dőtsch
Photos by Boglárka Zellei – Semmelweis University
