Each of the last two Olympic bronze-medal finals-at Beijing 2008 and London 2012-have been forced to extra time after draws in normal play, and Friday continued that trend with a penalty-shootout decider.
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USA captain Maggie Steffens was named Most Valuable Player for the second successive Olympics after topping the overall scoring charts with 17. Garibotti scored two goals on five shots in the quarterfinals against China, and followed that with a five goal effort on six shots against Russian Federation in the semifinals.
Goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson was the real star, however, making nine saves from the 13 shots she faced. The 12 goals and seven-goal margin were records for the Olympic final. Musselman was selected to the tournament’s all-star team in a vote by reporters covering the tournament.
Also named to the Media All-Star Team were Italy’s Arianna Garibotti, Hungary’s Rita Keszthelyi, Australia’s Ash Southern and Hungary’s Barbara Bujka.
With a 12-5 victory over Italy, Team USA became the first group to win consecutive Olympic gold medals and did it without losing or tying a single match in the tournament.
What the USA deserves is a spot in history, as it further cements itself into the water polo record books.
That they operated so efficiently over a two-week period during which their coach learned of the sudden death of his brother, flew home to California for the funeral, and then returned to Rio three days later to guide them, spoke both of Krikorian and a tightly bonded team that flourished in large part because of its selflessness.
You could also make an argument that the team, with an average age of 23, hasn’t peaked yet. Team USA was originally the bronze-medal victor, but was disqualified following an illegal transfer of the baton. “This feels like I thought it would, I guess”. The reigning world champions were never headed in a final that brought together the only two teams who had gone undefeated in all five of their previous games at Rio 2016. “How hard this journey has been”. It would have been very selfish of me to let what happened to me personally effect this group. And they delivered with their play – all the way to the gold medal. Honestly though it means a ton, no doubt.
“But I don’t need a medal to know the love and respect we have for each other, the relationships that have been born”, Krikorian said. “So, yeah, I’m just always nervous”. In a lot of ways, this team reminds me of him.
USA is, in this moment, a team of another universe, Conti said.
“These are strong, inspiring women”. Definitely not kids. They may have come in similar to how I was last squad as just a little pup trying to learn and soak in all the advice and experience from the older girls.
Click to head for the water polo news feed where you’ll find every story and video the moment they land on NBCOlympics.com! “It didn’t matter who was defending, or who was in center, or who was scoring goals, somebody else was going to do it the next game or continue doing it”. She is a competitor at its finest.
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China’s leading goalscorer in Rio added two more to her total in the match. “I think my skin is like magenta colored”. “She always had our back”. “Every player, every athlete, every coach that arrive in Olympic Games want to arrive to this dream”.
