Maddie Musselman has been recognized as the top women’s water polo player for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
But at one point she was worried about her place on the national team.
Musselman made his U.S. national team debut at age 15 in 2013, the year after the U.S. won its first Olympic gold medal in water polo. The Newport Beach, California, native worried he would lose his spot on the national team if he didn’t stand out.
“When I was No. 15 on this team, I’d come in and I had no idea what was going on,” Musselman told NBC. “I’d come out of practice thinking, ‘I’m never going to be called up again. I didn’t score a single goal today. I didn’t block a single ball.'”
But those early struggles propelled Musselman into stardom, as she made her Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games and scored 12 goals to help the U.S. defend its gold medal.
The UCLA alum scored 18 goals at the 2020 Olympics, was named tournament MVP and won her second gold medal.
“You have to be willing to fail, because it will only make you better, because when I first got in I failed a lot,” Musselman said.
Team USA will be chasing unprecedented history at the 2024 Paris Olympics, when the U.S. could become the first water polo team, women’s or men’s, to win four consecutive Olympic gold medals.
Now on the verge of making Olympic history, Musselman has certainly come a long way since her early days with the national team, and the two-time gold medal winner is grateful for her past experiences that helped shape her into the player, teammate and leader she is today.
“I went from being a young man who knew nothing to following in the shadows and footsteps of some great athletes,” Musselman said. “I learned how to be a good leader, how to communicate effectively, I gained experience in the sport itself and I became more confident in myself.”
Water polo star Maddie Musselman expressed her desire to be an Olympian in her sixth-grade yearbook, and her passion for the sport grew from playing on the boys’ team as a girl.
