Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're celebrating Day one of the Paris Olympics by sending a hot bonus episode your way.
That's right.
While we normally release episodes Monday through Friday, y'all know the saying. On the sixth day, the bonus episode was gifted to celebrate the start of the Olympic water polo tournament. I caught up with the best player in the world, Maggie Stephans, not only an amazing athlete, but an amazing person, and I loved this conversation so much. In Paris, Maggie has the chance to become the first water polo player of any gender to win four Olympic gold medals. Here's
our conversation. Enjoy joining us now. She's the captain of the US women's water polo team, widely considered the best water polo player on the planet, and as such, I think she deserves a little time here. We got quite the resume to read, so settle in. In college, she led her Stanford team to NCAA championships in twenty fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen, and a second place finish.
In twenty thirteen.
In the first match of the Summer Olympics in twenty twelve, she scored seven goals to tie the Olympic single game record. Went on to score twenty one total goals in the Olympics, set a new Olympic record for most goals scored in a women's water polo tournament, and.
The US one gold.
That gold was the first Olympic gold medal men's or women's won by the US in waterpolo at Olympic Games since the sports debut. Then twenty sixteen Olympics top goal scorer again seventeen goals as the US wins gold.
Twenty twenty, she sets.
A new Olympic record for most goals scored by an individual player in women's waterpolo at the Olympics. She's got a tradition of getting a new bill to bear before every Olympics, and we once crashed a wedding together. It's Maggie Stevens. What's up, Maggie, Hey, Sarah, great intro, Thank you.
I give mil mob.
I still think about us crashing the wedding and being very confident that the people there would be interested in you and your gold medal showing up at their wedding.
It's funny because now that I've had a wedding, I'm like, who ever let us in?
Neither of us were married at the time. We didn't know. We didn't know.
You know, that's ourry excuse. But they loved it. I really did love us coming in and having a little dance party.
They really did love it, which I'm grateful for because when I think back, I'm like, that was a little awkward. We just invited ourselves to their wedding and we were not dress appropriately.
But they did teach us.
It was an Indian wedding, so they were teaching us dances and they were wearing your metals. So I chalk it up to a win for them, regardless of whether we would have wanted them at our wedding.
You know, we can have memories that we tell ourselves where we're perfect to go.
So there you go.
It was a win win.
It's a win win.
We have so much to get to and not much time because you're about to leave for Paris. I'm so pumped to watch you and I want you on in part because I don't know that the average American is super familiar with water polo and super familiar with your greatness and the greatness of your team. Now we have a certain hype man that's helping with that. We'll get to him later, but I want to start with just
the basics. It's like if you're trying to tell a friend or someone that you just made an acquaintance with, like.
Hey, you should really watch water polo. What are you telling them?
What's like the couple things that will make it more fun to watch for them and that they need to know.
Yeah, So I think the first thing is I really want to change the rhetoric with water polo. I feel like so often I say water polo and the first question I get asked phil is oh, so do you stand on the bottom? And I really want to change that. I'm like, I don't know how long it's gonna take, but the first thing I want to just get out there and hopefully this question no longer gets asked. But we never touch the bottom of the pool. We are always doing egg beater or you can call it treading water,
so we're never really at rest. And when you see photos of water pool players shooting the ball like a baseball and we're up out of the water, it is our own strength, our own force, our own power, not the bottom of the pool.
So because that's the worst one on the bottom of the pool, right, it's the horses fed the polo that's on the.
Bottom of Yes, support that as well. So that's I think my first that's like my goal. I've realized if we can just get even somebody who's never heard of the sport, never watched it, but you know, it'd be like asking a basketball player like, oh, so do you fly?
It's like no, Or do you use a ladder to dunk? Yeah?
Yeah? Do you yeah? Yeah, exactly.
Well, that's one of the things I remember about first meeting you and you talking.
To us at an espnW summit.
There were these pictures of Lebron James coming out of the water shooting for a photo shoot, and then there were the outtakes of you and several of your teammates underwater holding him up because you were explaining just how hard it is, even for great athletes to be out of the water in that position and shooting, and it really like made clear to me just how physically tough it is to do what you're doing. It's also a very physical sport, so if people are just watching for the first time.
What do they need to know about going on under the water?
Yeah, so there's definitely two games going on. There's a game that you can kind of see above water, which I relate a lot to basketball, soccer, and hockey. It's similar to basketball in the sense that you have all players playing defense and offense. Everybody is kind of ebb and flow, counter attacking, counter defense, and you're kind of playing around a center position, the kind of the bigger player in the middle, and you're trying to get the
ball to them. And then you have your Steph Curries, you have your Lebron James, you have your Caitlin Clark's, like you have the outside shooters, the drivers, and soccer with the sense you have a goalie and you have a big net. But I think what is tough to understand and see, like you're hinting at, is the underwater game. And that's where you get kind of the wrestling, the judo, the physicality of hockey. And again you're not standing around the bottom of the pool. You know, I love calling
it your own power, your own force. You're creating, you know, your own energy. And while you're doing that, you have people you know, trying to get you off balance, maybe giving you a little pick. A lot of times people are holding your suit, you know, kind of bear hugging you underwater, and you have to try to stay cool, calm and collected above water and still try to achieve what needs to get done while underwater. There's this whole other gaal happening, yeah, which I love. I love it.
It's not for everybody, but I think that's what makes it so exciting.
I know, you've broken your nose, that's above water, underwater, what's the wildest thing that maybe an opponent has done or that you've had happen.
Yeah.
So, unfortunately, I broke my nose in the second game of Tokyo in the Olympics. That made the rest of the Olympics definitely quite painful, but it kind of just felt like, hey, bring it on, you know, we're here. But that was, to be honest, that was an accident. I've that was the first time I've broken my nose, and I had actually done an interview right for the Olympic, so, hey, like,
waterflow is pretty physical. I was like, honestly, most of my injuries are from overuse and and you know, over intensity and then I totally myself, so never doing that again. But yeah, that one just it's definitely very physical and you're you know, you're putting your face right into people's elbows and hands and whatever. So that happened versus China, which was unfortunate, but got back in, kept playing and most of my injuries. I got surgery a couple of
years ago on my shoulder. And you know, you can relate to a lot to baseball, just like you can imagine pictures like you're just throwing the ball so much and you're swimming, so think of the injuries that swimmers have on their shoulders and mix that with baseball players and that's what water polow players have because you're doing both right. Yeah, so that's kind of where the you know,
you need to just be sharp. That's where we do like a lot of weightlifting and you know a lot of strength training to be ready for that and to be fit enough to handle the load and intensity.
We got to pay some bills, but more with Maggie Stephens after the break. Maggie, I'm loving this flavor flav Era of the water polo team.
You and flav would need to be friends.
I mean, yeah, We've.
Been to both of you and it just makes social.
It does make sense. That's a weird makes a flavor flav makes sense.
He recently signed a five year deal to be the official hype man of US water polo. It has been incredibly fun watching him hype you guys up, interacting with the team, getting in the pool. Take us to how this started, because it really started with you.
Yeah, I mean, I honestly have you to think for a lot of this and a lot of the women that I've kind of met at whether it's like espnW events or Women's Sports Foundation events, but I feel like I always leave those weekends or even if it's just like a few hours, just feeling really empowered to actually
make a difference. And whether that's with my voice or with my actions or you know, just a behind the scenes and it's something that I've been you know, doing for you know, I would say ever since kind of the twenty sixteen Quad twenty twelve, I was like just Trent's fad and with Flaves, it kind of just happened with deciding, Hey, like we're heading into Paris, this could
be my last Olympics. I have no idea but we're going to Paris, which is where the first Olympics for women originated, and now we have fifty percent of women competing in the games. Like how amazing is that development and growth and at the same time of how exciting that is. I looked around at my teammates while we were under the tower. I was like, we're still just kind of water polo, you know, like still people are asking are you standing on the bottom of the or
are we on horses? Or they don't know Maddie Meselman's story, they don't know Ashley Johnson, they don't know Rachel Fatal, they don't know these girls that to me, I'm like, you know, to me, they're my cover girls, right like they're the people I I feel like could be leading
all of these different commercials or whatever. It is just not because of just the athletes and accolades that they've had, but the women that they are, the role models, they are the you know what they do outside of the pool,
and you know, not as many people know. But it's not like people join the Olympic team, especially or like water polo to you know, be rich and famous or get money or be on TV like you're doing it for the love of the sport, you're doing it for the love of each other, You're doing it for the love of your country and your family, and you kind of have this head down, grinded out mentality as water
polo players with that like underwater game. And so I just like put on Instagram, hey, like empowering people to try a different sport this Olympics, right, like watch maybe one of the more niche sports that isn't always you don't see every year like during the Olympics, NBC do is such an amazing job of highlighting all these different sports and it's something I'm so grateful for. But then it's like, you know, everybody kind of disappears in those three years in between. So how do we keep that
going during those three years in between? And whether it's water polo or rugby or you know, fencing something that maybe you didn't learn about, just try to learn it and watch it this Olympics, right and Flave, you know, responded to it, and I was kind of just asking for support as well. A lot of us have you know, different jobs to help financially support ourselves to try to achieve this dream, and Flavor Flave responded and kind of just steamrolled from.
There and.
It has really become a part of our team in that way and has been a great hype man. I think one thing he's done really well is any light that has been shined, he's shined it back on us, and I think that's really commendable. And I've met him a ton of different time, super genuine, really authentic, and I really love he's Like he got in with us, he had the courage in, he was awesome. He like I said, we've had people get in and it's a struggle, you know. And he jumped right in pigh fived all
of us. Then literally was like Maggie passing me the ball and I was like, oh my god, okay, and passed him the ball and he just wanted to start shooting against Sashley Johnson, who for those who don't know the rest, in my mind, that's goalkeeper ever and he just went right for it. I feel like that's his attitude. He was smiling the whole time, and his son was there, which was really cute, and I think that's just who
he is. He's he's a go getter. He does everything kind of one hund and we talked a lot, you know. I was talking to him about kind of the makeup of water polo and how much it needs to grow and it needs to grow, and also different communities and in different backgrounds with just the accessibility to pools and water and just trying to create this new avenue for people to see the sport. And if you see it right,
you believe you could possibly do that. And there's tons of people who maybe we're following flave for Public Enemy or whatever it is, and now we're like, WHOA, what's this water polo thing? And maybe now their kids are like, what's that water flags about in the water? Maybe I can too, right, so cool and just creating that that I that doorway, that window to me that and of itself. He could do nothing else, and that has been great for our sport.
It's been so fun to watch and I can't wait to watch that relationship continue to develop at the Olympics. I know you have run because you have to train to win another gold medal, so quick. Last question, one of the experiences you also had in this incredible lead up where your team thankfully is getting some more love and attention is Taylor Swift hook the whole team open tickets to a show VIP style.
I need I need to highlight from that.
Okay, So we went to Paris to we've done this every quad ever since I joined the team in two thousand and nine thy ten where we go to the host city before the tournament for a test game. And it's a way for us to you know, not only get a test game in the venue, but also you kind of get all the distractions out of the way, right, Like when you're in Paris in the Olympic village, you don't want to be hearing from your family how they're going down the set and they're in NiFe and tower
and they're eating these amazing food. We've done that. You know, it's like you're in focus mode. The knife is sharpened and you want to just chop right. And Paris we went before to kind of sharpen the knife right, get
the distraction out. And Taylor Swift was performing in the Olympic venue, so where is held and where the quarterfinals, semi finals and finals of Waterfolow will be held in Law Defense Arena, which is where she was performing, and so kind of jokingly we were like, oh, the only way we could visualize, right, which is such an important part pre Olympics, like visualizing and going to the venue and kind of seeing what it could be like would be to go to a Taylor Swift concert, right Like,
we're kind of joking about it, but we don't have time for that. We don't have the money for that, obviously.
And our team leader, Ali Beck or our manager, she's been amazing and she actually just started reaching out without us knowing, to Taylor Swift's PR, Like she just was.
Cold calling, cold emailing, just putting it out there and she got the job done. She was able to get in touch with their PR and kind of just said, hey, like women's waterfolow is here the USA team They're going to be hopefully competing in this arena for the Olympics or the quarterfinals, and hopefully semi files a blate vigls like, is there any way we could come to one of your shows? And it kind of took a while, but
they ended up responding. And I do believe Flave also, who apparently is like a king Swift ye had also I think he put a message in there which I'm sure helped, right like Loes. Yeah, And so we ended up getting surprised one day and canceled practice that night. It was the night before we left, so you know, we'd kind of already done our test game and everything, and we all got so excited. We went to Taylor Swift. We made friendship brieflet and I I'd nerve Ben to
the Swift concert. I didn't know this, there was this whole thing, but it was really fun. It was great team bonding and we got led back stage. I got to see Paramore like doing their jumping jacks.
I was like, oh wow.
And then we got led to this like awesome little VIP area where for us it was really special because we got to beat just with our team, and it was a really special moment because not only were we able to see the arena and visualize and and have that,
but we got to see Taylor Swift live. But I think she embodied kind of who we want to be, right Like she was playing in front of thousands and thousands of fans and just being this strong, badass woman who thrived under that pressure and was having fun, and that's kind of who we want to become. That moment,
so tears going on. Yeah, people were more into it, you know, a lot of singing and dancing, and yeah, we left Paris on a high note, and I hope that we can take that high note and you know, channel it for these next few weeks.
Flavor Flavor. Putting Taylor Swift in touch with the US women's water pole team in Paris is a mad lib and I'm obsessed.
This is so good, Maggie. Thank you so much for making time.
We are so excited to watch you and root for you as you try to be the first water pole player male or female to win four Olympic gold medals and continue to be the best player on the planet, have the best time.
Thank you. This is my one. I'm really thinking of. This says, you know what's happen in the pasts, half in the past, but this teams we're trying to win one gold medal and that's where we're at one of the time.
That's why you're a champion. That's why you're better than all of us.
Because I would be like, let me count them all every day before I go, You're like, nope, starting fresh.
I love fresh. This is our Yeah, this is our one.
Thank you so much to Maggie Stefans for stopping by the pod. She squeezed us in as she was getting in final preps before flying out to France, and we couldn't be more grateful.
We can't wait to watch her dominate.
US women's water polo and Maggie open up their Olympic title defense today with a groupie game against Greece. Watch it, check it out, cheer on, get on your hosts. All right, that's it for today's bonus episode. Hope you enjoyed it. We'll be back on Monday to discuss the first weekend of Olympic competition.
Can't wait.
Good Game, Maggie Steppens, Good Game, Taylor Swift, Hugh broken noses both Maggie's and mine thirty years ago. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzi and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan.
And Emily Rudder.
Our editors are Jenny Kaplan Emily Rudder Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain.