PARIS (AP) — Taste Flav stopped for hugs, handshakes and high-fives as he made his manner across the Staff USA Home on the Paris Video games on Thursday.

He by no means stopped smiling.

“That is fairly an expertise for me proper now, you recognize, as a result of the one time I’ve ever seen the Olympics was on TV,” Flav mentioned. “You already know what I’m saying? However I at all times needed to see what it felt like being there. So now I received the chance to be right here. It’s one of the best.”

Flav, a founding member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy, is in Paris as a part of his duties because the official hype man for USA Water Polo — a partnership that got here collectively after he linked with U.S. captain Maggie Steffens on Instagram in Might.

The 65-year-old Flav is embracing his new duties together with his typical model of seemingly boundless enthusiasm.

“I’m so prepared, man. … I’m so hype proper now about this sport,” mentioned Flav, carrying a customized USA Water Polo clock round his neck. “I want I used to be taking part in it. I’m hyping myself up proper now to ask them to let me on the crew.”

The highway to Flav’s Olympic debut started when Steffens posted on Instagram about her experiences with the U.S. ladies’s program, which has gained an unprecedented three straight gold medals going into Paris.

Whereas paying tribute to her teammates and expressing her love for her grueling sport, Steffens additionally highlighted the fixed monetary battle for many Olympic athletes. Flav’s supervisor introduced the difficulty to his consideration, and he promised his help in a touch upon Steffens’ publish.

“As a lady dad and supporter of all ladies’s sports activities – imma personally sponsor you my lady,,, no matter you want. And imma sponsor the entire crew,” Flav wrote.

That trade became a singular sponsorship deal between Flav — whose authorized identify is William Jonathan Drayton Jr. — and USA Water Polo. Flav made an undisclosed monetary contribution to the ladies’s program as a part of the five-year settlement, and he additionally agreed to collaborate on social media to assist convey consideration to the small sport.

He’s planning to attend the Olympic openers for the U.S. ladies and men. The ladies face Greece on Saturday, and the boys play Italy on Sunday.

Flav, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame with Public Enemy in 2013, prepped for his Paris expertise by attending two ladies’s video games, even becoming a member of the TV broadcast. He additionally jumped into the pool with the ladies’s crew.

“I attempted it. I received to strive it to see what it seems like,” Flav advised the AP. “And boy, I used to be within the water with the ladies for like seven minutes. And I used to be treading water for seven minutes. And I’m not going to lie. However that was like the toughest seven minutes in my life.”

Flav mentioned he “received fortunate” and linked on two objectives in opposition to Ashleigh Johnson — extensively thought of one of the best goaltender on the earth — although he felt as if she might need let him rating.

The importance of the second was not misplaced on Johnson, the primary black lady to play water polo for the U.S. Olympic crew.

“We noticed the video come out (on social media). … It was so cool to see it,” Johnson mentioned. “However I learn via the feedback and I see individuals asking questions on water polo and folks of colour wanting to start out taking part in. And that’s a special group than I’ve seen discuss our sport in the best way they have been speaking about it than I’ve like this complete time I’ve been on this crew.”

That’s one thing Flav hopes to see extra of as he continues to cheer on the U.S. groups.

“When it comes all the way down to water polo … it’s not likely about individuals of colour. It’s about those who like to play it,” he mentioned. “Water polo is for all races, all colours of individuals.”

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