Team USA Women Win Gold Medal in Water Polo

(Photo: Jeff Cable, Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog)

There was something different about Saturday’s game between the USA Women’s Water Polo Team when they took on the team from Spain. Yes, it was a medal game, which always feels a little different, but there was a mood among the Americans that was different. There was a confidence that was palpable.

The women were much more animated and vocal throughout the entire game. Every blocked shot, every save by Ashleigh Johnson, the goalkeeper, every goal they scored, those on the bench were cheering and clapping.

There wasn’t a point in the game in which the USA was trailing. In fact the closest Spain got to the Americans was a three-goal gap—the first time at 3:24 of the second quarter, when the score was 6-3, and the second time at 0:38 of that same period, when the score was 7-4. Once the third quarter began, the women playing for the USA were scoring even more than they already had.

They seemed to be seeing every shot that might go in—blocking most of them. Johnson was having one of the best games of the tournament and was herself making incredible saves. The team as an entity was in harmony and it showed from the start of the first quarter to the end of the game.

“I think one thing that our team has been really focused on, not only in this Olympics but through this quad plus year of this journey is to enjoy the moment as much as possible. I think, you know, with the pandemic, the postponement, so many challenges, so much adversity, so many setbacks that our team has gone through individually and as a group, and we kept coming out of those stronger. And always stronger together utilizing what the team is for, is to be stronger together and create that unit. And today, I think, that was just the show of who we are as a team, no matter the adversity that’s thrown our way, we stick together as a team, and we rise up and we thrive in those moments. It was really amazing to see the balance and full team effort. You could see it from every single player on our team. That’s what it’s about. It’s about the unit that you build, the unit you create, and that’s really where the magic lies and I’m really grateful to be a part of it and to have been able to show the world that magic that we’ve created as a circle of our unit,” said captain Maggie Steffens.

They did look strong and not just physically. It was clear that they all had their focus on the game and they were there for each other. They had worked hard in each game up to that point earning their place in the ultimate game. They were going to guarantee that they deserved that medal when they won.

Many have made a point of bringing up that the USA women’s team has now won the gold medal in three consecutive Olympics; 2012 in London (where the beat Spain, coincidentally), 2016 in Rio and now 2020 in Tokyo. There were many questions about the “three-peat” but their head coach, Adam Krikorian, tended to shut that talk down.

““To my point earlier, I think what I was trying to say was, I know there’s going to be a lot of talk about ‘This is three gold medals’ and so on and so forth and that’s great for the press and all of you, but the reality is this was the very first gold medal for this team,” he said.

In fact, of the current team, only Steffens and Melissa Seidemann competed in London. And of those who competed in Rio, besides Steffens and Seidemann, were Johnson, Maddie Musselman, Rachel Fattal, Aria Fischer, Kaleigh Gilchrist, and Makenzie Fischer.

The winning of the gold medal game for Team USA wasn’t something that they just woke up one day and said, “Let’s play water polo and win a medal.” These women have been training since they were young girls. Some, who have graduated college, have had to move overseas to join European teams because there is no professional league in the United States. These athletes and their families along with all the coaches, trainers, and other staff have put in so much time and effort to get the team to where it was on Saturday in Tokyo; it somehow just couldn’t have gone any other way.

Note: If you love the photo, be sure to check out more by visiting Jeff Cable’s Photography Blog here.