CNN
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Flavor Flav has done many things throughout his career, including being a rapper, a reality TV star, and even a restaurant owner.
Now the watch-wearing musician has found a new and unexpected calling in the sports world, volunteering to work as a spokesman for the U.S. women's water polo team ahead of this year's Paris Olympics.
The decision was seemingly spontaneous: After seeing an Instagram post by captain Maggie Stephens, who called for more people to become interested in the sport with the Olympics looming, Flav decided to support the team.
“It was just a shock and it was so surreal,” Stephens told CNN Sports about Flav responding to her post. “I'm so happy because what water polo needs, and what a lot of these niche sports need, is someone to open the door to our sport. There's only so much we can do as athletes.”
Flav, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer best known as a co-founder of the rap group Public Enemy, hopes to be poolside at some of the U.S. games in Paris. He responded to Steffens on Instagram, vowing to “use all my connections and resources” to support the team in the run up to the Olympics.
“Everybody wants to know what that opportunity is like, and I know what it's like to want that opportunity,” Flav told TMZ Live last month.
“A guy like me wants to provide that. That's why I sponsor this women's water polo team. I just want to help, I want to give back. I want to help women reach their goals.”
And those goals aren't small: In Paris, Stephens and her team will try to make history by becoming the first women's water polo team to win four consecutive Olympic gold medals. All three previous victories have been won by the 30-year-old.
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Stephens is a veteran player on the U.S. women's water polo team.
Despite their dominance, the team remains little known to many and, like other sports, water polo can struggle to draw audiences outside the spotlight of the Olympic Games, which are held only once every four years.
That's where Flav comes in.
“The best explanation is that he's a publicist,” Stephens said.
“To be honest, it's not so much about financial support, it's about how I can help him. [get] “I want to bring more attention to our team, the incredible women on our team, and the women who came before us. How can we get water polo in front of as many people as possible and expose it to as many people as possible?”
According to USA Water Polo, USA Water Polo membership has nearly doubled from 26,837 in 2008 to more than 50,000 in 2019, with participation growing at the high school and college levels.
Stephens, who set the record for most points (21) at an Olympic Games by a teenager in 2012, acknowledged she has seen the sport grow during her 15 years with the national team.
But she wants her achievement to be more than medals, records and statistics – she wants water polo to become “common knowledge” and a “common language” among the general public.
Stephens hopes that one day people will understand the basics of the sport, rather than constantly asking if they can touch the bottom of the pool (which they shouldn't).
“Sometimes people say, 'Oh, it's a shame you're not a soccer player,' or 'It's a shame you're not a basketball player,' because that gets you more TV coverage,” she added. “But to me, water polo is my whole life. It's my gift. Without the sport, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
Stephens and his teammates currently live in Long Beach, California, and are training up to seven hours a day in preparation for the Olympics.
Right now, attention is almost entirely focused on water polo — “it's like a knife being sharpened as the Olympics approach,” Stephens said — but it wasn't always that way.
Most water polo players have other jobs in addition to their playing careers. For the U.S. women's team, that means coaching in high school or college, teaching, going to graduate school or working in marketing or sales.
Stephens is a co-founder of data company 6-8 Sports and also earns money playing overseas.
“We all know the cost of living in California is high, and most Olympic athletes live on or below minimum wage,” she said. “Often they're praying for a bonus, or praying to win a tournament so they can buy the things they need to compete and live.”
Sandy Hooper/USA Today Sports/Reuters
The U.S. women's water polo team poses for a photo ahead of the Paris Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not distribute prize money at the Olympics, but athletes can earn prize money from their national Olympic committees (NOCs), governing bodies and sponsorship deals.
Still, raising the funds to qualify for the Olympics can be difficult, especially for athletes in smaller, less mainstream sports.
The United States receives no government funding for its Olympic program, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee provides “limited” financial support to sports organizations, according to USA Water Polo, which is also funded by membership fees and donations.
“To be an Olympian, unless you're a professional team athlete who gets selected for the Olympic team, you're essentially being forced to donate a significant amount of money and time,” Mark Conrad, a professor of law and ethics at Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business, told CNN Sports.
“And to do that you have to get a job. I've heard stories of elite track and field athletes who would have worked as waiters if they could. That's tough if you're going to go down the Olympic path.”
Earlier this year, World Athletics announced it would award $50,000 each to track and field gold medallists at the Paris Games, becoming the first international federation to dole out prize money at the Olympics, adding that the bonus would also apply to silver and bronze medallists at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Boxing has followed suit, with this year's Olympics offering more than $3.1 million in prize money to athletes, coaches and federations.
The announcement has brought renewed attention to the issue of athlete pay at the Olympics, the most prestigious event among many sports.
“It's amazing what Olympians can achieve with their drive and ambition,” Stephens said. “This isn't just true for water polo, but for many niche sports that don't have the backing of major sponsors or professional leagues.”
A talented athlete since childhood, Stephens chose water polo because it combined elements of the other sports he enjoyed: the ball control of basketball, the quick hands of baseball, the team play of soccer, the balance of gymnastics, the athleticism of hockey and the strength and endurance of swimming.
“It's very tough, but I think that's what makes it fun,” Stephens said. “It's a sport that really anyone can play. If you look at the types of people that play and the teams that play, they're all different sizes and heights.”
“[Water polo] “It can equalize it, it can highlight people's different strengths and really make them proud of their bodies and what they're capable of,” she added.
Stephens hopes it's something we can all get behind, whether you're a casual fan or one of the world's most famous promotional men.
