“I got chills,” goalie Ashleigh Johnson said.
“My jaw dropped,” captain Maggie Steffens said.
When they walked into their players’ lounge after their 15-6 demolition of Greece in their Paris Olympics opener, the Americans saw more than Biden. South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) and figure skating legend Brian Boitano all wanted to meet them, too.
One of the most dominant sports teams on the planet, the U.S. women opened their attempt at a fourth consecutive gold medal and discovered they have become kind of a big deal. Before Saturday, they had been supported in some form by luminaries that ranged from Taylor Swift to Flav, the rapper who signed a five-year contract to sponsor and promote them as an official hype man.
Now, the first lady handed them coins with the presidential seal, and Staley commended their centers, the players who jostle a few feet in front of the net, as particularly impressive.
“It just made me remember that this is so much bigger than us,” Johnson said. “It also reminded me that the Olympics creates moments that would never happen.”
Johnson felt shaky as Biden addressed her and her teammates. She marveled at how Biden made her feel like the only person in the room. Biden told the players that she had never watched water polo before and that she could not believe the physical exertion the sport requires.
“She reminded me of my mom,” Steffens said. “She was wearing the cutest outfit. Here’s the first lady, and the first thing she said was: ‘I could never do what you guys do. It’s so difficult.’ I was like, ‘I do not want to trade jobs.’”
Biden arrived late in the match and sat in the front row next to her Greek counterpart. Flav, whose counterpart exists neither domestically nor internationally, sat in the top of the stands waving an American flag and wearing a water polo cap, then walked down to wave to them.
The United States’ three remaining group-stage games feel like formalities before the knockout phase in larger Paris La Défense Arena, a place that already holds special meaning for the Americans.
As the year began, Coach Adam Krikorian scheduled a test match at the Aquatics Centre for May, wanting his players to get a feel for the city and the pool that would host their opening games. Over the winter, while scanning for a potential family trip to see Swift in concert, Krikorian realized the Eras Tour would be swinging through Paris the same week as his team’s exhibition — and that Swift would be playing La Défense Arena, the venue of the gold medal water polo match.
“For us to be able to visualize and get to see the stadium, the only way was to go to a Taylor Swift concert,” Steffens said.
Team operations manager Ally Beck contacted Swift’s camp. Swift gifted the entire team tickets. Four days after dusting France, 12-6, in the test match, the U.S. women glammed up and headed to the show together. And thus, two superpowers in their chosen fields — one globally famous, one largely anonymous — converged on a Friday night in May on the outskirts of Paris.
“If we get the chance to play in La Défense Arena, we want to be like her,” Steffens said. “We want to be able to love the pressure and have fun and enjoy the moment. As badass and powerful of a woman as she is, for us to see that in person was pretty magical.”
At one moment during the set, Krikorian stepped back and looked at his team: Olympic veterans with arms slung over one another’s shoulders, first-timers still in college singing along, all of them swaying together. He began to cry.
“You’re trying to create the best environment where there’s so much love and joy that the rest of it takes care of itself,” Krikorian said. “To see them all in that moment, it just got me.”
After the Tokyo Games in 2021, there was no guarantee they would be together for another run. They had conquered the world again, and they were exhausted. Krikorian, their coach since the 2012 London Olympics, contemplated retirement. Kaleigh Gilchrist, twice a gold medalist, was sure she was done. Rachel Fattal, a leading scorer back at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, considered moving on to coaching. Johnson asked herself, “Do I have anything left to give to this sport?”
Steffens, the lone current player to win all three golds, started recruiting them for one more run. Krikorian took Gilchrist out to breakfast and, rather than congratulating her on a great career as she expected, told her, “You know, you could still play water polo.” Gilchrist texted Johnson to ask if she would return. “I will if you do,” Johnson replied. At some point, an individual choice became a collective decision.
The Americans entered these Olympics carrying both utter dominance and relative vulnerability. They brought a 172-5 streak into the Tokyo Games, then lost to Hungary in the group stage before cruising to gold. They have gone 27-6 in major tournaments since 2021, finishing fifth at last year’s world championship and losing twice before taking gold at the World Cup. They fell to Hungary, 10-8, in their final friendly tuneup in Berkley, Calif., this month.
In an instant Saturday, the United States showed it still has the Olympics in a stranglehold. The Americans romped to a 7-0 lead, Johnson commanding from the goal and their rhythmic offense pulverizing Greece’s net. “There’s a part of me that was like, ‘Where’s this been, guys?’” Krikorian said. “They love these moments.”
Johnson — “maybe the best goalkeeper of all time,” Greek Coach Alexia Kammenou said — saved 10 of the 14 shots she faced. Nine Americans scored. Olympic rookie Jenna Flynn had a hat trick before halftime and finished with four goals, an emblem of how younger players have meshed with gold medalists.
“There was a fairly large gap between the women that have been there and done it before and all of our youngsters,” Krikorian said. “And I think that gap has closed significantly, if there even is a gap.”
Krikorian tells his players to appreciate every moment. After their opener, Maddie Musselman, twice a gold medalist, looked up into the crowd and felt goose bumps. She did not see a rapper or celebrity or politician. She saw her family, and it reminded her that they had been absent in Tokyo. It was another moment that could happen only at the Olympics.
