It was later after the medal ceremony that the women donned their medals around Krikorian’s neck, something the 2012 team had gotten the idea to do after reading Duke (and Team USA’s) basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski’s book, “The Gold Standard”. KK Clark looked at hers and mouthed, “Oh, my God”. Coach Adam Krikorian invited Kaleigh to try out for the national water polo team.
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The Americans successfully defended their Olympic title from 2012 with a 12-5 victory over Italy. The coroner said he had gone paddle boarding and died of a heart attack. Krikorian learned that night and flew home from Rio the next day.
Four years after women were added to the Olympic boxing competition, AIBA changed its rules to award two Val Barker Trophies for the first time in Rio. Blake Krikorian would have turned 49 Thursday, the eve of the final.
“This team fought the entire time”, Lee said. Everyone has sacrificed so much to get to this point. They felt like they had lost a member of their own family, because that’s what they had become during four years of training.
“It was unusual. There was a really strong force inside us telling us, ‘Don’t give up, keep fighting, ‘” Italy’s Ivan Zaytsev said.
Krikorian wanted to ensure his tragedy would not impede their dreams. “And here I am: hating water polo, struggling, knowing that I could be if not exactly where they were, then close. Gosh, that’s going to make us stronger for sure”. “That’s why he’s the best coach in the world”. With the Olympics just about to begin, Adam flew home, leaving his team behind.
To prevail here, the tight-knit team had to play through tragedy. Krikorian’s wife, Anicia Mendez, surprised him by flying in from Southern California for the championship game. Go have a blast. “How hard this journey has been”.
In the final, the USA (5-0) will face a team also undefeated. The U.S. Men held set point five times before Italy won on two straight aces from Emanuele Birarelli.
But they were blown out of the water by the strength of the American team in the final two periods, and Rachel Fattal and Makenzie Fischer finished with two goals apiece to go with Neushul’s hat-trick.
For the tournament, the US outscored opponents, 73-32, and won all six games by at least four goals. The U.S. missed the opportunity to score on a power play but pulled in the rebound.
The team’s recent record, including a winning streak of at least 22 games, has rarely been matched in the history of the sport, which only added women’s play to the Olympics in 2000. “This feels like I thought it would, I guess”.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next four years”, Steffens said, “but this is too incredible, incredible of an opportunity to call yourself an Olympian with a team, a real team, not just people that are thrown together, but a team that has grown together, to pass up again”. “We played completely different than the game’s ever been played before”. “Not in the USA, but in the world”.
Water polo is no sport for the timid.
Their excellence made the final another blowout. Coral Springs’ Lexi Thompson was 2-over heading into the final round. For more than two weeks, Krikorian had focused on his team.
Klay Thompson scored 22 points and Kevin Durant had 14 points as the USA defeated Spain 82-76 Friday in the semifinals.
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“She said, ‘You have earned the right to be where you are, ‘ ” the water polo star recalled a few days later. “It just started to raise and sort of burst out of me”.
