Taste Flav realizes it’s an sudden crossover.
The rap icon as soon as had solely a imprecise consciousness of water polo, as he’d seen Olympic matches on tv. However Flav has a brand new appreciation for the game, marveling on the immense stamina required to play it, after lately signing a five-year sponsorship deal to function the official hype man for the U.S. ladies’s and males’s nationwide water polo groups.
“What sort of relationship does rap have with water polo? None,” mentioned Flav.
Till now.
How the collaboration got here collectively is well-documented: Maggie Steffens, the U.S. ladies’s crew’s longtime captain, posted a photograph of the gamers on her Instagram in Might with a caption outlining challenges the athletes typically face, together with that gamers sometimes work a number of jobs whereas pursuing their Olympic goals. She referred to as on her followers to observe and help ladies’s sports activities.
Flav, who mentioned his supervisor initially flagged the publish, responded to the decision, pledging his help. Thus, an unprecedented partnership was born. He and Steffens appeared collectively final Monday on “CBS Mornings,” the place Flav introduced he would give $1,000 to every crew member and a Virgin Voyage cruise to the squad.
The 65-year-old Rock and Roll Corridor of Famer informed The Athletic he plans to attend the Paris Video games, cheering on the crew as they goal for a fourth straight Olympic gold medal, a feat that has not but been completed by any males’s or ladies’s water polo crew.
“I’m there to hype them up. I’m there to attempt to get them into that spirit of successful that fourth gold medal,” Flav mentioned with a confidence befitting his function. “… And I do know we will do it. We’re gonna get it.”
Flav additionally mentioned he plans to attend the ladies’s crew’s ultimate pre-Olympic house match in opposition to Hungary. He wrote in a publish on X he’ll be at Tuesday’s match in Berkeley, Calif., and can take photographs and signal autographs “earlier than and after the sport however not in the course of the sport” so he can keep locked in.
Imma be on the sport on Tuesday,,, I shall be taking photographs and signing autographs earlier than and after the sport however not in the course of the sport,,, all of us right here to cheer on these ladies https://t.co/8AHYAtzE0R
— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) July 3, 2024
“I’m attempting to get as many individuals as I can concerned,” he mentioned. “Hopefully what I’m doing will open up the doorways for different celebrities like myself to assist sponsor these Olympic groups, as a result of these (athletes) are on the market busting their butts to make america look good.”
The U.S. ladies’s water polo crew has welcomed the extra eyeballs as they go for an Olympic file. Coach Adam Krikorian, who has guided america to extra Olympic golds than any coach on any crew in ladies’s water polo, referred to as it “a sport that’s been ravenous for consideration and on the lookout for notoriety.”
“We’re a crew that looks like, at occasions, we go unnoticed,” he mentioned. “And so, when you may have somebody who’s within the highlight share their love and their ardour for our crew, it’s touching. We find it irresistible. We embrace it. We hope it evokes others to hop on.”
Krikorian mentioned he doesn’t thoughts if Flav’s curiosity encourages a bandwagon group to comply with their journey this summer time: “We’ll take ’em all. You didn’t must be with us at first.”
What any new followers shall be rallying round is a squad synonymous with success. Since he was employed in 2009, Krikorian and the U.S. ladies have gone on a staggering run, claiming gold on the final three Olympics and 6 of the final 9 world championships.
However Krikorian — a former UCLA water polo standout who calls the late basketball legend John Picket his teaching idol — is much less involved with the outcomes. The scores don’t even come up when his employees reevaluates a follow or a sport. He preaches presence over perfection, a philosophy he highlighted when discussing Emily Ausmus, an attacker who Krikorian mentioned has taken on a bigger function as a defender “headfirst.”
At 18 years previous, Ausmus is the crew’s youngest participant and represents a corps with no Olympic expertise on a roster practically break up between first-time Olympians (seven) and returners (six). That have degree is a shift from the final Olympic cycle in Tokyo in 2021 when most gamers had been a part of the group that additionally gained gold in Rio in 2016.
On the other finish of the expertise spectrum is Steffens, who helped lead the U.S. to gold on the final three Video games. On the Tokyo Olympics, she turned the all-time main scorer in ladies’s Olympic water polo. And if the U.S. ladies get gold in Paris, Steffens will grow to be the primary water polo participant to win 4 Olympic gold medals in a row.
Steffens, 31, can rattle off an inventory of youthful gamers on this yr’s roster with whom she linked in earlier phases of life, highlighting the full-circle expertise for her this Video games:
— Ryann Neushul, 24, is the third Neushul sister Steffens will play with on the Olympics. “I bear in mind when she was only a child,” Steffens mentioned;
— Jenna Flynn and Steffens posed collectively for a photograph on the Rio Video games when Flynn was a younger fan. “Now she’s at Stanford and right here on Group USA and considered one of my closest pals on the crew, and we’re 11 years aside.”
— Jewel Roemer is a Northern California native like Steffens, and Steffens grew up attending males’s scrimmages at Diablo Valley Faculty coached by Roemer’s father. “I bear in mind getting cute movies from (Jewel) saying, ‘Good luck.’”
— Ausmus attended camps and clinics organized by Steffens’ firm, 6-8 Sports activities. “(She was) someone we talked about 5, six, eight years in the past, like, ‘Oh my gosh, this lady’s so good and we’re actually excited to see her potential.’”
“We’ve actually created this particular bond,” Steffens mentioned of the youthful group. “And I believe as a lot as they appear as much as me as a pacesetter and have appeared as much as me since they had been children and adopted that path, I believe what’s actually wonderful is I look as much as them simply as a lot.”
The U.S. ladies’s water polo crew huddles in the course of the Tokyo gold-medal match. The Individuals are vying for a historic fourth straight Olympic gold. (Marcel ter Bals / BSR Company / Getty Pictures)
Steffens is honest in her reward, as she is in her perception in her teammates. Ashleigh Johnson, who’s making her third Olympic look with Group USA, referred to as Steffens “a dreamer in all senses.”
“While you’re round Maggie, something is legitimately attainable,” mentioned Johnson, 29, the crew’s goalkeeper who’s broadly thought of the very best on this planet at her place. “She’s our captain, however as her pal, she is going to construct a approach for any dream to return true. And should you imagine one thing, she believes it and also you guys are going to perform it collectively.”
For instance, Johnson mentioned, Steffens sometimes encourages others whereas grinding by the toughest elements of coaching or pushing by a ultimate swim set. Exterior of the pool, Steffens is the one to land in a brand new metropolis after 24 hours of touring and both have a full itinerary prepared or discover with out a plan. She has an “Energizer Bunny angle,” in accordance with Johnson.
That boundless power has carried over into different aspects as Steffens and Johnson have grow to be de facto ambassadors of their sport, a job that wasn’t at all times pure to them. In 2016, Johnson turned the primary Black lady to make the U.S. Olympic water polo crew. She mentioned, over time, she’s felt extra empowered to talk about her experiences, share her story and champion variety to encourage others.
Steffens, who joined the crew when she was 15 years previous, mentioned it’s taken her 15 or 16 years to search out her voice when it comes to advocating for ladies’s athletes and extra overtly discussing the monetary challenges of pursuing the game.
Olympic water polo coaching takes place in Southern California, an space of the nation with a notoriously excessive value of dwelling. In an Olympic yr, coaching is six days every week and is basically a full-time job for the athletes, Steffens mentioned.
Payouts on the Video games depend upon the game, nation and end, however the Worldwide Olympic Committee and every sport’s governing physique haven’t historically paid winners. In a primary for a global federation, World Athletics, which oversees observe and discipline, introduced in April it will award $50,000 in prize cash to gold medalists on the Paris Video games.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee gave athletes $37,500 for successful gold, $22,500 for silver and $15,000 for bronze on the Tokyo Olympics.
Steffens mentioned she would play water polo — which doesn’t have knowledgeable ladies’s league within the U.S. — if she made no cash and needed to sofa surf, however her hope is for future water polo athletes to not must work different jobs to help themselves whereas performing on the highest degree.
“I might like to see sooner or later folks retire a lot later of their profession as a result of they will afford to maintain taking part in water polo and don’t really feel like they must retire at 22 to get a ‘actual job,’” she mentioned.
Any help helps, Steffens mentioned, and Flav’s sponsorship is an instance of the payoff she’s seen after posting in regards to the subject.
“One factor that I like about water polo and about our crew is it’s a really head-down, humble, hard-work mentality,” Steffens mentioned. “And considered one of my goals is to depart the game and the ladies on this sport higher than once I got here in, and hopefully present extra alternative, present extra publicity, let their tales be informed, let their names be heard.”
Steffens is aware of there’s extra work to do and extra followers to rally. However each counts, and thus far, she’s hitting her objectives.
GO DEEPER
From Stanford to Group USA, a water polo dynasty eyes an Olympic four-peat
(Prime illustration of Maggie Steffens and Taste Flav: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photographs: Ronald Martinez / Getty Pictures, Jerod Harris / Getty Pictures for The Recording Academy)
