How U.S. women's water polo became the latest Olympic dynasty
TOKYO — Adam Krikorian didn’t want to talk about the threepeat. Or, at least, he didn’t want to use that word. He’d just completed it here at the Tatsumi Water Polo Center. He’d jumped into a pool, fully clothed, after the U.S. women’s water polo team he coaches won its third straight Olympic gold.
But that, he said, shouldn’t be the story. “This is the first one for that team,” he said. “Every team is different.”
His point was well taken. Only two of the 13 players who joined him in celebration had been part of a similar one in 2012. The concept of Olympic dynasties is, in general, a fickle one. So much can change in four years. Rosters turn over. Players age. Others arrive. New circumstances arise. Consecutive titles, especially in team sports, often have very little to do with each other.
And yet here was a U.S. women’s water polo team whose victory here on Saturday seemed a foregone conclusion by halftime. Here was a team that has only lost once in Olympic play since 2008, a team with fresh faces but a familiar aura of dominance.
So there was the question: What, if “every team is different,” explains why the results stay the same?
And here, too, in Tokyo on Saturday, were the answers.
They aren’t singular. Success has been built over years. It started with Krikorian and Maggie Steffens, the greatest to ever play the sport. It has continued, in large part, not only because Steffens has propelled the team with her talent, or because Krikorian has driven it with his leadership, but because they established a culture and taught it to sustain itself.
“We've had a lot of continuity within our staff,” Krikorian pointed out. He’s also had veteran players on every roster he’s ever led. “So when new people come into the program,” he said, “I use them and my assistant coaches to kind of hand down the knowledge and the culture.”
It’s how many great college sports programs operate, and it’s evident in this team that has been fed by the college system. The culture produces friendships away from the pool, but also intense competition in it. When the team went more than 400 days without a match during the COVID-19 pandemic, players sharpened one another, day after day.
And their togetherness pulled one another through, when the days got long and the training droned on.
“No matter what adversity is thrown your way, whether it was a pandemic, sickness, injuries, more personal adversity … we do have each other,” Steffens said. “And that's what being a team is about, is creating that circle, that trust, that respect and that love, to be able to thrive in that adversity.”
There are, of course, plenty of other reasons for dominance. “It's our preparation. It's our coaching,” goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson said.
But she, too, mentioned culture. Several players did.
And they showed it too. They exuded it. They embraced, jubilantly, in the hours-long aftermath of what for some was a third gold medal, and for others a second, and for five a first. They all celebrated it, all the same.
And then they credited one another. As Krikorian spoke about his players to reporters, Steffens approached from behind and put her hands on his shoulders.
"Best coach I've ever freakin' had,” she said, gleefully. “He's like, 'They did this, they did that.' Don't forget, he's the leader here. He's the boss man."
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