US women’s water polo — with unlikely hype man — aims for Olympic record
Flavor Flav realizes it’s an unexpected crossover.
The rap icon once had only a vague notion of water polo after watching Olympic games on television. But Flav has a new appreciation for the sport—and is amazed by the immense stamina it takes to play it—after recently signing a five-year sponsorship deal to serve as the official hype man for the U.S. men’s and women’s national water polo teams.
“What relationship does rap have to water polo? None,” Flav said.
Until now.
How the partnership came about is well-documented: Maggie Steffens, the longtime captain of the U.S. women’s national team, posted a photo of the players on her Instagram in May with a caption outlining the challenges the athletes often face, including that players often work multiple jobs while pursuing their Olympic dreams. She urged her followers to watch and support women’s sports.
Flav, who said his manager initially flagged the post, responded to the call and pledged his support, and an unprecedented partnership was born. He and Steffens appeared together last Monday on “CBS Mornings,” where Flav announced he would be giving each team member $1,000 and giving the team a cruise with Virgin Voyage.
The 65-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said The Athletics He plans to attend the Paris Olympics and cheer on the team as they strive for their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal, a feat no water polo team, men’s or women’s, has accomplished before.
“I’m here to get them pumped up. I’m here to get them in the mood to win that fourth gold medal,” Flav said with a confidence befitting his role. “… And I know we can do it. We’re going to make it.”
Flav also said he plans to attend the women’s team’s final pre-Olympic home game against Hungary. He wrote in a post on X that he will be at Tuesday’s game in Berkeley, California, and that he will be taking pictures and signing autographs “before and after the game, but not during the game” so he can be there.
I will be at the game on Tuesday,,, I will be taking pictures and signing autographs before and after the game but not during the game,,, we are all here to support these women
— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) July 3, 2024
“I try to get as many people involved as possible,” he said. “Hopefully what I do opens the door for other celebrities like me to sponsor these Olympic teams, because these (athletes) work their asses off to make the United States look good.”
The U.S. women’s water polo team has welcomed the extra attention as they chase an Olympic record. Coach Adam Krikorian, who has led the United States to more Olympic gold medals than any coach of any other women’s water polo team, called it “a sport that’s hungry for attention and looking for notoriety.”
“We’re a team that sometimes feels like we go unnoticed,” he said. “And so when you have someone in the spotlight who shares their love and passion for our team, it’s touching. We love it. We embrace it. We hope it inspires others to join in.”
Krikorian said he doesn’t mind if Flav’s interest encourages a group of followers to follow their journey this summer: “We’ll take them all. You didn’t have to be there in the beginning.”
What all the new fans will rally around is a team synonymous with success. Since he was hired in 2009, Krikorian and the U.S. women have had an astonishing run, winning gold at the last three Olympics and six of the last nine world championships.
But Krikorian — a former UCLA water polo player who calls the late basketball legend John Wooden his coaching idol — is less concerned with results. The scores don’t even come up when his staff reevaluates a practice or a game. He preaches presence over perfection, a philosophy he emphasized when discussing Emily Ausmus, a forward who Krikorian said has been given a larger role as a defender “head first.”
At 18, Ausmus is the youngest player on the team and represents a squad with no Olympic experience on a roster that is nearly split between rookies (seven) and returning competitors (six). That level of experience is a shift from the last Olympic cycle in Tokyo 2021, when most of the players were part of the group that also won gold in Rio in 2016.
On the other end of the experience spectrum is Steffens, who has helped the U.S. win gold at the last three Games. At the Tokyo Olympics, she became the all-time leading scorer in women’s water polo. And if the U.S. women win gold in Paris, Steffens will become the first water polo player to win four straight Olympic gold medals.
Steffens, 31, can list younger players in this year’s squad with whom she came into contact in earlier stages of her life, underscoring the full circle she has experienced at these Games:
— Ryann Neushul, 24, is the third Neushul sister Steffens will compete with at the Olympics. “I remember when she was just a kid,” Steffens said;
— Jenna Flynn and Steffens posed together for a photo at the Rio Games when Flynn was a young fan. “Now she’s at Stanford and here on Team USA and she’s one of my best friends on the team, and we’re 11 years apart.”
— Jewel Roemer is from Northern California, like Steffens, and Steffens grew up attending men’s games at Diablo Valley College, coached by Roemer’s father. “I remember getting funny videos of (Jewel) saying, ‘Good luck.'”
— Ausmus attended camps and clinics put on by Steffens’ company, 6-8 Sports. “(She was) someone we talked about five, six, eight years ago, and were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this girl is so good and we’re really excited to see her potential.’”
“We’ve really created a special bond,” Steffens said of the younger group. “And I think they look up to me as a leader just as much and have since they were kids and were on that path, I think it’s really great that I look up to them just as much.”
The U.S. women’s water polo team huddles during the gold medal match in Tokyo. The Americans are vying for a historic fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal. (Marcel ter Bals/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
Steffens is sincere in her praise, just as she believes in her teammates. Ashleigh Johnson, who is making her third Olympic appearance with Team USA, called Steffens “a dreamer in every sense of the word.”
“When you’re with Maggie, anything is possible,” said Johnson, 29, the team’s goalie who is widely regarded as the best in the world at her position. “She’s our captain, but as her friend, she’s going to create a way to make any dream come true. And if you believe in something, she believes in it, and you’re going to achieve it together.”
For example, Johnson said Steffens typically encourages others as she pushes through the toughest parts of training or slogs through a final swim set. Outside of the pool, Steffens is the one who lands in a new city after 24 hours of travel and either has a full itinerary ready or goes exploring without a plan. She has an “Energizer Bunny attitude,” Johnson said.
That boundless energy has carried over into other facets, as Steffens and Johnson have become de facto ambassadors for their sport, a role that didn’t always come naturally to them. In 2016, Johnson became the first Black woman to make the U.S. Olympic water polo team. She said that over time, she’s felt more empowered to talk about her experiences, share her story and advocate for diversity to inspire others.
Steffens, who joined the team at age 15, says it took her 15 or 16 years to find her voice in advocating for female athletes and to talk more openly about the financial challenges that come with playing the sport.
Olympic water polo training takes place in Southern California, an area of the country with a notoriously high standard of living. In an Olympic year, training is six days a week and is essentially a full-time job for the athletes, Steffens said.
Payouts at the Games vary by sport, country and finish, but the International Olympic Committee and each sport’s governing body traditionally do not pay winners. In a first for an international federation, World Athletics, which oversees track and field, announced in April that it would award $50,000 in prize money to gold medalists at the Paris Games.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee awarded athletes $37,500 for winning gold, $22,500 for winning silver and $15,000 for winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Steffens said she would play water polo, a sport that has no professional women’s league in the U.S., if she didn’t make money and had to sleep on other athletes’ couches. But she hopes future water polo athletes won’t have to work other jobs to support themselves while competing at the highest level.
“I would love to see people retire much later in their careers in the future because they can afford to keep playing water polo and not feel like they have to retire at 22 to get a ‘real job,’” she said.
Any support helps, Steffens said, and Flav’s sponsorship is an example of the rewards she sees after posting about the topic.
“One thing I love about water polo and our team is the mentality of a very down-to-earth, humble, hard-working mentality,” Steffens said. “And one of my dreams is to leave the sport and the women in the sport better than when I started, and hopefully provide more opportunities, more exposure, let their stories be told, let their names be heard.”
Steffens knows there is more work to be done and more fans to gather, but every one counts, and so far she is achieving her goals.
GO DEEPER
From Stanford to Team USA, a water polo dynasty aims for an Olympic quadruple win
(Top illustration by Maggie Steffens and Flavor Flav: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletics; photos: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images, Jerod Harris/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
