Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're celebrating
Speaker 1: Day one of the Paris Olympics by sending a hot
Speaker 1: bonus episode your way.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: While we normally release episodes Monday through Friday, y'all know
Speaker 1: the saying. On the sixth day, the bonus episode was
Speaker 1: gifted to celebrate the start of the Olympic water polo tournament.
Speaker 1: I caught up with the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: Maggie Stephans, not only an amazing athlete, but an amazing person,
Speaker 1: and I loved this conversation so much. In Paris, Maggie
Speaker 1: has the chance to become the first water polo player
Speaker 1: of any gender to win four Olympic gold medals. Here's
Speaker 1: our conversation. Enjoy joining us now. She's the captain of
Speaker 1: the US women's water polo team, widely considered the best
Speaker 1: water polo player on the planet, and as such, I
Speaker 1: think she deserves a little time here. We got quite
Speaker 1: the resume to read, so settle in. In college, she
Speaker 1: led her Stanford team to NCAA championships in twenty fourteen, fifteen,
Speaker 1: and seventeen, and a second place finish.
Speaker 2: In twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: In the first match of the Summer Olympics in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: she scored seven goals to tie the Olympic single game record.
Speaker 1: Went on to score twenty one total goals in the Olympics,
Speaker 1: set a new Olympic record for most goals scored in
Speaker 1: a women's water polo tournament, and.
Speaker 2: The US one gold.
Speaker 1: That gold was the first Olympic gold medal men's or
Speaker 1: women's won by the US in waterpolo at Olympic Games
Speaker 1: since the sports debut. Then twenty sixteen Olympics top goal
Speaker 1: scorer again seventeen goals as the US wins gold.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty, she sets.
Speaker 1: A new Olympic record for most goals scored by an
Speaker 1: individual player in women's waterpolo at the Olympics. She's got
Speaker 1: a tradition of getting a new bill to bear before
Speaker 1: every Olympics, and we once crashed a wedding together. It's
Speaker 1: Maggie Stevens. What's up, Maggie, Hey, Sarah, great intro, Thank you.
Speaker 3: I give mil mob.
Speaker 1: I still think about us crashing the wedding and being
Speaker 1: very confident that the people there would be interested in
Speaker 1: you and your gold medal showing up at their wedding.
Speaker 3: It's funny because now that I've had a wedding, I'm like,
Speaker 3: who ever let us in?
Speaker 2: Neither of us were married at the time. We didn't know.
Speaker 2: We didn't know.
Speaker 3: You know, that's ourry excuse. But they loved it. I
Speaker 3: really did love us coming in and having a little
Speaker 3: dance party.
Speaker 1: They really did love it, which I'm grateful for because
Speaker 1: when I think back, I'm like, that was a little awkward.
Speaker 1: We just invited ourselves to their wedding and we were
Speaker 1: not dress appropriately.
Speaker 2: But they did teach us.
Speaker 1: It was an Indian wedding, so they were teaching us
Speaker 1: dances and they were wearing your metals. So I chalk
Speaker 1: it up to a win for them, regardless of whether
Speaker 1: we would have wanted them at our wedding.
Speaker 3: You know, we can have memories that we tell ourselves
Speaker 3: where we're perfect to go.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 3: It was a win win.
Speaker 2: It's a win win.
Speaker 1: We have so much to get to and not much
Speaker 1: time because you're about to leave for Paris. I'm so
Speaker 1: pumped to watch you and I want you on in
Speaker 1: part because I don't know that the average American is
Speaker 1: super familiar with water polo and super familiar with your
Speaker 1: greatness and the greatness of your team. Now we have
Speaker 1: a certain hype man that's helping with that. We'll get
Speaker 1: to him later, but I want to start with just
Speaker 1: the basics. It's like if you're trying to tell a
Speaker 1: friend or someone that you just made an acquaintance with, like.
Speaker 2: Hey, you should really watch water polo. What are you
Speaker 2: telling them?
Speaker 1: What's like the couple things that will make it more
Speaker 1: fun to watch for them and that they need to know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think the first thing is I really
Speaker 3: want to change the rhetoric with water polo. I feel
Speaker 3: like so often I say water polo and the first
Speaker 3: question I get asked phil is oh, so do you
Speaker 3: stand on the bottom? And I really want to change that.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't know how long it's gonna take,
Speaker 3: but the first thing I want to just get out
Speaker 3: there and hopefully this question no longer gets asked. But
Speaker 3: we never touch the bottom of the pool. We are
Speaker 3: always doing egg beater or you can call it treading water,
Speaker 3: so we're never really at rest. And when you see
Speaker 3: photos of water pool players shooting the ball like a
Speaker 3: baseball and we're up out of the water, it is
Speaker 3: our own strength, our own force, our own power, not
Speaker 3: the bottom of the pool.
Speaker 1: So because that's the worst one on the bottom of
Speaker 1: the pool, right, it's the horses fed the polo that's
Speaker 1: on the.
Speaker 3: Bottom of Yes, support that as well. So that's I
Speaker 3: think my first that's like my goal. I've realized if
Speaker 3: we can just get even somebody who's never heard of
Speaker 3: the sport, never watched it, but you know, it'd be
Speaker 3: like asking a basketball player like, oh, so do you fly?
Speaker 2: It's like no, Or do you use a ladder to dunk? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Do you yeah? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, that's one of the things I remember about first
Speaker 1: meeting you and you talking.
Speaker 2: To us at an espnW summit.
Speaker 1: There were these pictures of Lebron James coming out of
Speaker 1: the water shooting for a photo shoot, and then there
Speaker 1: were the outtakes of you and several of your teammates
Speaker 1: underwater holding him up because you were explaining just how
Speaker 1: hard it is, even for great athletes to be out
Speaker 1: of the water in that position and shooting, and it
Speaker 1: really like made clear to me just how physically tough
Speaker 1: it is to do what you're doing. It's also a
Speaker 1: very physical sport, so if people are just watching for
Speaker 1: the first time.
Speaker 2: What do they need to know about going on under
Speaker 2: the water?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's definitely two games going on. There's a
Speaker 3: game that you can kind of see above water, which
Speaker 3: I relate a lot to basketball, soccer, and hockey. It's
Speaker 3: similar to basketball in the sense that you have all
Speaker 3: players playing defense and offense. Everybody is kind of ebb
Speaker 3: and flow, counter attacking, counter defense, and you're kind of
Speaker 3: playing around a center position, the kind of the bigger
Speaker 3: player in the middle, and you're trying to get the
Speaker 3: ball to them. And then you have your Steph Curries,
Speaker 3: you have your Lebron James, you have your Caitlin Clark's,
Speaker 3: like you have the outside shooters, the drivers, and soccer
Speaker 3: with the sense you have a goalie and you have
Speaker 3: a big net. But I think what is tough to
Speaker 3: understand and see, like you're hinting at, is the underwater game.
Speaker 3: And that's where you get kind of the wrestling, the judo,
Speaker 3: the physicality of hockey. And again you're not standing around
Speaker 3: the bottom of the pool. You know, I love calling
Speaker 3: it your own power, your own force. You're creating, you know,
Speaker 3: your own energy. And while you're doing that, you have
Speaker 3: people you know, trying to get you off balance, maybe
Speaker 3: giving you a little pick. A lot of times people
Speaker 3: are holding your suit, you know, kind of bear hugging
Speaker 3: you underwater, and you have to try to stay cool,
Speaker 3: calm and collected above water and still try to achieve
Speaker 3: what needs to get done while underwater. There's this whole
Speaker 3: other gaal happening, yeah, which I love. I love it.
Speaker 3: It's not for everybody, but I think that's what makes
Speaker 3: it so exciting.
Speaker 1: I know, you've broken your nose, that's above water, underwater,
Speaker 1: what's the wildest thing that maybe an opponent has done
Speaker 1: or that you've had happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, unfortunately, I broke my nose in the second game
Speaker 3: of Tokyo in the Olympics. That made the rest of
Speaker 3: the Olympics definitely quite painful, but it kind of just
Speaker 3: felt like, hey, bring it on, you know, we're here.
Speaker 3: But that was, to be honest, that was an accident.
Speaker 3: I've that was the first time I've broken my nose,
Speaker 3: and I had actually done an interview right for the Olympic, so, hey, like,
Speaker 3: waterflow is pretty physical. I was like, honestly, most of
Speaker 3: my injuries are from overuse and and you know, over
Speaker 3: intensity and then I totally myself, so never doing that again.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that one just it's definitely very physical and
Speaker 3: you're you know, you're putting your face right into people's
Speaker 3: elbows and hands and whatever. So that happened versus China,
Speaker 3: which was unfortunate, but got back in, kept playing and
Speaker 3: most of my injuries. I got surgery a couple of
Speaker 3: years ago on my shoulder. And you know, you can
Speaker 3: relate to a lot to baseball, just like you can
Speaker 3: imagine pictures like you're just throwing the ball so much
Speaker 3: and you're swimming, so think of the injuries that swimmers
Speaker 3: have on their shoulders and mix that with baseball players
Speaker 3: and that's what water polow players have because you're doing
Speaker 3: both right. Yeah, so that's kind of where the you know,
Speaker 3: you need to just be sharp. That's where we do
Speaker 3: like a lot of weightlifting and you know a lot
Speaker 3: of strength training to be ready for that and to
Speaker 3: be fit enough to handle the load and intensity.
Speaker 1: We got to pay some bills, but more with Maggie
Speaker 1: Stephens after the break. Maggie, I'm loving this flavor flav
Speaker 1: Era of the water polo team.
Speaker 3: You and flav would need to be friends.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, We've.
Speaker 3: Been to both of you and it just makes social.
Speaker 2: It does make sense. That's a weird makes a flavor
Speaker 2: flav makes sense.
Speaker 1: He recently signed a five year deal to be the
Speaker 1: official hype man of US water polo. It has been
Speaker 1: incredibly fun watching him hype you guys up, interacting with
Speaker 1: the team, getting in the pool. Take us to how
Speaker 1: this started, because it really started with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I honestly have you to think for
Speaker 3: a lot of this and a lot of the women
Speaker 3: that I've kind of met at whether it's like espnW
Speaker 3: events or Women's Sports Foundation events, but I feel like
Speaker 3: I always leave those weekends or even if it's just
Speaker 3: like a few hours, just feeling really empowered to actually
Speaker 3: make a difference. And whether that's with my voice or
Speaker 3: with my actions or you know, just a behind the
Speaker 3: scenes and it's something that I've been you know, doing
Speaker 3: for you know, I would say ever since kind of
Speaker 3: the twenty sixteen Quad twenty twelve, I was like just
Speaker 3: Trent's fad and with Flaves, it kind of just happened
Speaker 3: with deciding, Hey, like we're heading into Paris, this could
Speaker 3: be my last Olympics. I have no idea but we're
Speaker 3: going to Paris, which is where the first Olympics for
Speaker 3: women originated, and now we have fifty percent of women
Speaker 3: competing in the games. Like how amazing is that development
Speaker 3: and growth and at the same time of how exciting
Speaker 3: that is. I looked around at my teammates while we
Speaker 3: were under the tower. I was like, we're still just
Speaker 3: kind of water polo, you know, like still people are
Speaker 3: asking are you standing on the bottom of the or
Speaker 3: are we on horses? Or they don't know Maddie Meselman's story,
Speaker 3: they don't know Ashley Johnson, they don't know Rachel Fatal,
Speaker 3: they don't know these girls that to me, I'm like,
Speaker 3: you know, to me, they're my cover girls, right like
Speaker 3: they're the people I I feel like could be leading
Speaker 3: all of these different commercials or whatever. It is just
Speaker 3: not because of just the athletes and accolades that they've had,
Speaker 3: but the women that they are, the role models, they
Speaker 3: are the you know what they do outside of the pool,
Speaker 3: and you know, not as many people know. But it's
Speaker 3: not like people join the Olympic team, especially or like
Speaker 3: water polo to you know, be rich and famous or
Speaker 3: get money or be on TV like you're doing it
Speaker 3: for the love of the sport, you're doing it for
Speaker 3: the love of each other, You're doing it for the
Speaker 3: love of your country and your family, and you kind
Speaker 3: of have this head down, grinded out mentality as water
Speaker 3: polo players with that like underwater game. And so I
Speaker 3: just like put on Instagram, hey, like empowering people to
Speaker 3: try a different sport this Olympics, right, like watch maybe
Speaker 3: one of the more niche sports that isn't always you
Speaker 3: don't see every year like during the Olympics, NBC do
Speaker 3: is such an amazing job of highlighting all these different
Speaker 3: sports and it's something I'm so grateful for. But then
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, everybody kind of disappears in those
Speaker 3: three years in between. So how do we keep that
Speaker 3: going during those three years in between? And whether it's
Speaker 3: water polo or rugby or you know, fencing something that
Speaker 3: maybe you didn't learn about, just try to learn it
Speaker 3: and watch it this Olympics, right and Flave, you know,
Speaker 3: responded to it, and I was kind of just asking
Speaker 3: for support as well. A lot of us have you know,
Speaker 3: different jobs to help financially support ourselves to try to
Speaker 3: achieve this dream, and Flavor Flave responded and kind of
Speaker 3: just steamrolled from.
Speaker 2: There and.
Speaker 3: It has really become a part of our team in
Speaker 3: that way and has been a great hype man. I
Speaker 3: think one thing he's done really well is any light
Speaker 3: that has been shined, he's shined it back on us,
Speaker 3: and I think that's really commendable. And I've met him
Speaker 3: a ton of different time, super genuine, really authentic, and
Speaker 3: I really love he's Like he got in with us,
Speaker 3: he had the courage in, he was awesome. He like
Speaker 3: I said, we've had people get in and it's a struggle,
Speaker 3: you know. And he jumped right in pigh fived all
Speaker 3: of us. Then literally was like Maggie passing me the
Speaker 3: ball and I was like, oh my god, okay, and
Speaker 3: passed him the ball and he just wanted to start
Speaker 3: shooting against Sashley Johnson, who for those who don't know
Speaker 3: the rest, in my mind, that's goalkeeper ever and he
Speaker 3: just went right for it. I feel like that's his attitude.
Speaker 3: He was smiling the whole time, and his son was there,
Speaker 3: which was really cute, and I think that's just who
Speaker 3: he is. He's he's a go getter. He does everything
Speaker 3: kind of one hund and we talked a lot, you know.
Speaker 3: I was talking to him about kind of the makeup
Speaker 3: of water polo and how much it needs to grow
Speaker 3: and it needs to grow, and also different communities and
Speaker 3: in different backgrounds with just the accessibility to pools and
Speaker 3: water and just trying to create this new avenue for
Speaker 3: people to see the sport. And if you see it right,
Speaker 3: you believe you could possibly do that. And there's tons
Speaker 3: of people who maybe we're following flave for Public Enemy
Speaker 3: or whatever it is, and now we're like, WHOA, what's
Speaker 3: this water polo thing? And maybe now their kids are like,
Speaker 3: what's that water flags about in the water? Maybe I
Speaker 3: can too, right, so cool and just creating that that
Speaker 3: I that doorway, that window to me that and of itself.
Speaker 3: He could do nothing else, and that has been great
Speaker 3: for our sport.
Speaker 1: It's been so fun to watch and I can't wait
Speaker 1: to watch that relationship continue to develop at the Olympics.
Speaker 1: I know you have run because you have to train
Speaker 1: to win another gold medal, so quick. Last question, one
Speaker 1: of the experiences you also had in this incredible lead
Speaker 1: up where your team thankfully is getting some more love
Speaker 1: and attention is Taylor Swift hook the whole team open
Speaker 1: tickets to a show VIP style.
Speaker 2: I need I need to highlight from that.
Speaker 3: Okay, So we went to Paris to we've done this
Speaker 3: every quad ever since I joined the team in two
Speaker 3: thousand and nine thy ten where we go to the
Speaker 3: host city before the tournament for a test game. And
Speaker 3: it's a way for us to you know, not only
Speaker 3: get a test game in the venue, but also you
Speaker 3: kind of get all the distractions out of the way, right,
Speaker 3: Like when you're in Paris in the Olympic village, you
Speaker 3: don't want to be hearing from your family how they're
Speaker 3: going down the set and they're in NiFe and tower
Speaker 3: and they're eating these amazing food. We've done that. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like you're in focus mode. The knife is sharpened
Speaker 3: and you want to just chop right. And Paris we
Speaker 3: went before to kind of sharpen the knife right, get
Speaker 3: the distraction out. And Taylor Swift was performing in the
Speaker 3: Olympic venue, so where is held and where the quarterfinals,
Speaker 3: semi finals and finals of Waterfolow will be held in
Speaker 3: Law Defense Arena, which is where she was performing, and
Speaker 3: so kind of jokingly we were like, oh, the only
Speaker 3: way we could visualize, right, which is such an important
Speaker 3: part pre Olympics, like visualizing and going to the venue
Speaker 3: and kind of seeing what it could be like would
Speaker 3: be to go to a Taylor Swift concert, right Like,
Speaker 3: we're kind of joking about it, but we don't have
Speaker 3: time for that. We don't have the money for that, obviously.
Speaker 4: And our team leader, Ali Beck or our manager, she's
Speaker 4: been amazing and she actually just started reaching out without
Speaker 4: us knowing, to Taylor Swift's PR, Like she just was.
Speaker 3: Cold calling, cold emailing, just putting it out there and
Speaker 3: she got the job done. She was able to get
Speaker 3: in touch with their PR and kind of just said, hey,
Speaker 3: like women's waterfolow is here the USA team They're going
Speaker 3: to be hopefully competing in this arena for the Olympics
Speaker 3: or the quarterfinals, and hopefully semi files a blate vigls like,
Speaker 3: is there any way we could come to one of
Speaker 3: your shows? And it kind of took a while, but
Speaker 3: they ended up responding. And I do believe Flave also,
Speaker 3: who apparently is like a king Swift ye had also
Speaker 3: I think he put a message in there which I'm
Speaker 3: sure helped, right like Loes. Yeah, And so we ended
Speaker 3: up getting surprised one day and canceled practice that night.
Speaker 3: It was the night before we left, so you know,
Speaker 3: we'd kind of already done our test game and everything,
Speaker 3: and we all got so excited. We went to Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3: We made friendship brieflet and I I'd nerve Ben to
Speaker 3: the Swift concert. I didn't know this, there was this
Speaker 3: whole thing, but it was really fun. It was great
Speaker 3: team bonding and we got led back stage. I got
Speaker 3: to see Paramore like doing their jumping jacks.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh wow.
Speaker 3: And then we got led to this like awesome little
Speaker 3: VIP area where for us it was really special because
Speaker 3: we got to beat just with our team, and it
Speaker 3: was a really special moment because not only were we
Speaker 3: able to see the arena and visualize and and have that,
Speaker 3: but we got to see Taylor Swift live. But I
Speaker 3: think she embodied kind of who we want to be,
Speaker 3: right Like she was playing in front of thousands and
Speaker 3: thousands of fans and just being this strong, badass woman
Speaker 3: who thrived under that pressure and was having fun, and
Speaker 3: that's kind of who we want to become. That moment,
Speaker 3: so tears going on. Yeah, people were more into it,
Speaker 3: you know, a lot of singing and dancing, and yeah,
Speaker 3: we left Paris on a high note, and I hope
Speaker 3: that we can take that high note and you know,
Speaker 3: channel it for these next few weeks.
Speaker 1: Flavor Flavor. Putting Taylor Swift in touch with the US
Speaker 1: women's water pole team in Paris is a mad lib
Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed.
Speaker 2: This is so good, Maggie. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: making time.
Speaker 1: We are so excited to watch you and root for
Speaker 1: you as you try to be the first water pole
Speaker 1: player male or female to win four Olympic gold medals
Speaker 1: and continue to be the best player on the planet,
Speaker 1: have the best time.
Speaker 3: Thank you. This is my one. I'm really thinking of.
Speaker 3: This says, you know what's happen in the pasts, half
Speaker 3: in the past, but this teams we're trying to win
Speaker 3: one gold medal and that's where we're at one of
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 2: That's why you're a champion. That's why you're better than
Speaker 2: all of us.
Speaker 1: Because I would be like, let me count them all
Speaker 1: every day before I go, You're like, nope, starting fresh.
Speaker 3: I love fresh. This is our Yeah, this is our one.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Maggie Stefans for stopping by
Speaker 1: the pod. She squeezed us in as she was getting
Speaker 1: in final preps before flying out to France, and we
Speaker 1: couldn't be more grateful.
Speaker 2: We can't wait to watch her dominate.
Speaker 1: US women's water polo and Maggie open up their Olympic
Speaker 1: title defense today with a groupie game against Greece. Watch it,
Speaker 1: check it out, cheer on, get on your hosts. All right,
Speaker 1: that's it for today's bonus episode. Hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday to discuss the first weekend
Speaker 1: of Olympic competition.
Speaker 2: Can't wait.
Speaker 1: Good Game, Maggie Steppens, Good Game, Taylor Swift, Hugh broken
Speaker 1: noses both Maggie's and mine thirty years ago. Good Game
Speaker 1: with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
Speaker 1: partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
Speaker 1: us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our producers
Speaker 1: are Alex Azzi and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan.
Speaker 2: And Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Jenny Kaplan Emily Rudder Britney Martinez and
Speaker 1: Grace Lynch. Production assistants from Lucy Jones and I'm Your
Speaker 1: Host Sarah Spain.