Maggie Steffens requested for extra assist for the U.S. ladies’s water polo workforce, and the captain obtained one notably stunning response.
From a clock-wearing rap icon.
Moved by Steffens’ Instagram submit, Taste Flav has stepped ahead to assist the U.S. workforce because it goes for an unprecedented fourth consecutive gold medal on the Paris Olympics this summer season. He’s finalizing a deal that can make him a USA Water Polo sponsor and the official hype man for a program searching for an even bigger highlight.
The 65-year-old Flav, a founding member and hype man with Public Enemy, has jumped headfirst into his new duties, highlighting among the workforce’s finest gamers on social media. He is also planning to look at the ladies’s workforce play in Paris.
“Once I come out and I watch this water polo workforce … ‘USA! USA!’ Yo, I’m going to be the most important hype man that they ever had of their life,” he informed the AP on Friday. “I’m going to be larger than any cheerleader that that they had of their life. I’m going to cheer this workforce on, and I’m going to cheer this workforce into profitable a gold medal.”
Successful has been the standard end result for the U.S. ladies’s workforce because the 2012 Olympics. But it surely hasn’t attracted the identical consideration or assist as equally dominant American packages, largely as a result of water polo stays a distinct segment sport all through many of the world.
That — together with just a little nostalgia — prompted Steffens, 30, the final remaining member of the 2012 workforce, to submit on Instagram. Whereas expressing gratitude for the chance to play and her love for her sport, she additionally inspired anybody studying the submit to take a look at her workforce and highlighted the fixed monetary wrestle for many Olympic athletes.
“We’ve gotten loads of feedback you recognize of ‘Oh, it’s so cool what you’ve completed. Bummer you’re not a soccer participant or a basketball participant, as a result of your workforce could be getting far more publicity or far more assist,’” Steffens stated Friday from Paris, the place the workforce is on a coaching journey forward of the Olympics.
“And as an alternative we’re nonetheless form of the place we had been at 12 years in the past, which for me isn’t my purpose. I’ve at all times needed to propel the game ahead.”
Enter Flav, who was inducted with the group Public Enemy into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 2013. Flav’s supervisor introduced the submit to his consideration, and he determined he needed to assist.
“One factor about me, I do know what it feels prefer to need to see a dream come true,” stated Flav, who is thought for sporting an enormous clock on a series round his neck. “I do know what it feels prefer to need to obtain a purpose, and I’m the kind of person who, if I see you making an attempt, then I’m going to do no matter I can that can assist you.”
Steffens stated it was “very surreal” when Flav — whose authorized identify is William Jonathan Drayton Jr. — reached out. Requested what she knew about Flav and Public Enemy earlier than the connection, Steffens promptly imitated Flav’s frequent “Taste Flav!” declaration.
Steffens is without doubt one of the oldest gamers on the U.S. workforce, however she stated Ryann Neushul, 24, had Public Enemy in her high 5 on the music streaming service, Spotify. A few the workforce’s coaches and Steffens’ household additionally had been excited concerning the partnership.
“My complete household was like ‘Is that this actual? Flav is a part of the water polo world now?’” Steffens stated. “I used to be like ‘I don’t know what’s occurring, however I need to put on a clock proper now and that’s how I’m feeling.’”
Steffens and the U.S. workforce even have one other high-profile supporter in Taylor Swift. They attended the musician’s Eras Tour live performance on Friday evening at La Défense Area — the venue for the ladies’s water polo closing on Aug. 10.
Girls’s nationwide workforce supervisor Ally Beck reached out to Swift’s camp and stunned the workforce with the tickets. Flav stated he additionally contacted Swift’s workforce, however the tickets had already been authorised.
Flav, who’s engaged on one other tour with Public Enemy that would start later this 12 months, then held up a T-shirt together with his image that learn “KING SWIFTIE.”
“I’m proud to assist Taylor. … Taste Flav is a Swiftie, the king of all of the Swifties,” he stated.
That’s one other connection Flav has together with his new favourite workforce.
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