When thinking about the U.S. women’s water polo team and its upcoming performance in the Paris Summer Olympics, rapper Flavor Flav likely wouldn’t be the first person to come to mind.
However, it’s apparently time to expand that view. After team captain Maggie Steffens asked for more support for the program’s fourth consecutive gold medal on social media, the entertainer was inspired to reach out to the U.S. women’s team.
“Water polo, women’s water polo specifically, may not be the most popular sport or on everyone’s radar,” Steffens wrote on Instagram. “But with women’s sports even more on the rise, I encourage everyone to give these women a try! To join our family & friends and watch them strive to defy odds & chase history. To see what committed training day in and day out for over a year can create! To see what women can do in the water.”
Flav is now in the process of becoming a sponsor and official hype man for USA Water Polo, according to the Associated Press.
Maggie Steffens asked for more support for the U.S. women’s water polo team, and the captain received one particularly surprising response.
From a clock-wearing rap icon, Flavor Flav. pic.twitter.com/35zVReMS7o
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 10, 2024
“When I come out and I watch this water polo team – ‘USA! USA!’ Yo, I’m going to be the biggest hype man that they ever had in their life,” Flav told the AP’s Jay Cohen on Friday. “I’m going to be bigger than any cheerleader that they had in their life. I’m going to cheer this team on, and I’m going to cheer this team into winning a gold medal.”
The U.S. women’s water polo team’s new hype man got right to work on his social media accounts, beginning to promote individual athletes including Steffens, Ashleigh Johnson and Maddie Musselman. He also connected with Taylor Swift fans to highlight the pop superstar’s support of the team and mentioning that her concert on Friday is being performed in the same Paris venue where the women’s water polo final will be played on Aug. 10.
Despite the U.S. women’s water polo team’s success — winning gold medals at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics — the sport doesn’t get the same support that soccer, basketball and gymnastics get among fans because it’s largely a niche sport in the United States. That compelled Steffens to make her appeal.
“Some may not know this, but most Olympians need a 2nd (or 3rd) job to support chasing the dream (myself included!) and most teams rely on sponsors for travel, accommodations, nutritional support, rent/lodging, and simply affording to live in this day and age,” Steffens added in her Instagram post.
“Especially female sports and female athletes. We’ve had companies & amazing individuals support our sport alongside donors, USAWP & USOPC, but we always need more help.”
Some help, in the form of a hip hop icon and reality TV star sporting a large clock around his neck, has now arrived.
The U.S. women’s water polo team begins competition at the Paris Olympics on July 27 in a preliminary round matchup with Greece.
