Maggie Steffens is the greatest women’s water polo player of all time. And it’s really not close.
If she had been born in Hungary or Greece, countries where the sport is popular, her face might be plastered on magazine covers, billboards and cereal boxes. Instead she was born in California, where she and her Olympic teammates gave up any hope of fame or fortune the first time they jumped in the pool.
“Water polo is such a hard sport, you’re definitely not doing it for money. You’re definitely not doing it for being on a Wheaties box,” Steffens said. “You’re doing it for your dream. You’re doing it for your passion.”
Sure. But when you’ve won three gold medals, five world championships and are the leading scorer in Olympic history, it would be nice if people knew your name.
So ahead of the Paris Games, where the U.S. opens group play Saturday and chases a record fourth straight Olympic title, Steffens has enlisted the help of two diverse musical artists in Flavor Flav, the clock-wearing co-founder of the groundbreaking rap group Public Enemy, and Taylor Swift, perhaps the most popular entertainer on the planet, to raise the team’s profile.
The unlikely pairings surfaced in May after Steffens, the team captain, lauded her teammates’ talent and dedication in a heartfelt 388-word Instagram post that ended in a plea for support.
One of the first to respond was Flav, the Hall of Fame rapper. Earlier this month, he signed an unprecedented five-year deal to become the official “hype man” for the men’s and women’s national water polo teams. As part of the agreement, Flav, whose real name is William Drayton, will make an undisclosed financial contribution to the women’s team, appear at USA Water Polo events and leverage his massive social media presence to publicize the sport.
“I’m going to be the biggest hype man that they ever had in their life,” he told the Associated Press. “I’m going to be bigger than any cheerleader that they had in their life. I’m going to cheer this team into winning a gold medal.”
Swift’s support for a self-described group of “talented and driven women” is totally on brand.
For Flav, a 65-year-old Black rap pioneer from Long Island, however, joining a team of blond-haired, blue-eyed “twenty-somethings” from California would appear to mix as well as oil and water polo.
That’s exactly the point, Steffens said.
Some players on the Olympic team have had to work multiple jobs to support their athletic careers. Introducing the game to people outside the sport’s narrow fan base could help increase support and make that unnecessary.
“If we just stay in that water polo community, how do we grow?” Steffens said. “What Flavor Flav has helped do is open up the door to the rest of the world and say, ‘Hey, check this sport out, check these women out.’
“That’s the chance that we need. Now our job is to be the women that we are and showcase what we can do.”
What they’ve done so far — three consecutive Olympic titles — had never been done before so a fourth gold in Paris would simply add to the record. For Steffens, every score in France will add to her Games record of 56 goals.
However, this competition could prove the most challenging for a team that has relied on age and experience. Seven of the 13 women on the Paris roster are first-time Olympians. With the Tokyo Games having been delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, four years of preparation has been squeezed into three.
“There’s a lot of talk that we’re not as good as we’ve been in the past. I say it to the team all the time. And I mean it,” said coach Adam Krikorian, whose team was fifth in last year’s world championships, equaling its worst finish in a dozen years.
“I’m not trying to create motivation, it’s the reality. If you look at our roster and look at the horses that we lost, it was a big hit.”
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It’s difficult to play polo without horses and among those who are no longer in Krikorian’s stable are three-time gold medalist Melissa Seideman; sisters Aria and Makenzie Fischer, who have four gold medals between them; four-time world and Olympic champion Alys Williams, and Stephania Haralabidis, who was third on the Tokyo team in scoring with 13 goals.
Among the replacements are defender Jordan Raney, the last player cut from the Tokyo roster, and defender Emily Ausmus, at 18 the youngest women’s water polo Olympian since Aria Fischer in 2016.
For Steffens, the journey from Tokyo to Paris has been the most difficult, mentally and physically, of her career. She underwent shoulder surgery after the last Olympics and, at 31, had to work her way back onto the roster for these Games.
If she had done that in search of a fourth straight gold medal in soccer or basketball, she’d be a household name. Instead she still has to flash her driver’s license to get into the team’s Los Alamitos training facility.
If she has any regrets, she keeps them well-hidden.
“Water polo has been my choice. Water polo has been my gift,” said Steffens, whose father played water polo in three Pan American Games for Puerto Rico and was a three-time All-American at California. “It’s my whole life so I would never trade that for the world.“
Plus there are some fringe benefits, apart from the opportunity to collect more gold. That’s where Taylor Swift comes in.
Two months ago the team flew to Paris for an Olympic test event at the 5,000-seat Paris Aquatic Centre, where the group-stage matches will be played. What the players really wanted to do, however, was get a look at La Défense Arena, the spacious rugby stadium where water polo’s medal rounds will be held.
“The purpose was [to] see the venue and feel it and visualize ourselves there in a quarterfinal,” Steffens said.
Swift already had booked the stadium for her Eras Tour, so team manager Ally Beck reached out to the singer’s camp and asked if it would be OK to have a look around.
Swift did better than that, inviting the players and coaches backstage before a concert, then gifting them tickets in a special VIP area and outfitting them in tour jackets and T-shirts.
“They went beyond our wildest expectations,” Beck said.
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The 3½-hour concert, Krikorian said, was more than entertaining. It was inspiring for a group of women who soon hope to be performing in that same building.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is exactly what we want to bring to the pool,’” the coach said. “What better way to get in the right mindset and to experience that energy and that joy and that love. Because those are the values that we want to play with.”
If they get the chance to show off those values in the Aug. 10 gold-medal final, Swift, who will be two hours away in Vienna, has an open invitation to come back and cheer the team.
“I’ll be on the record,” Krikorian said. “Taylor, you have a front-row seat.”
Right next to Flavor Flav.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
