USA Water Polo premieres Olympic documentary in Newport Beach
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USA Water Polo set out to produce a documentary on the Olympic women’s water polo team, as it prepared to win its fourth straight gold medal in Paris last summer.
Then, an unexpected thing happened.
Team USA didn’t win gold.
Or silver.
Or bronze.
The fourth-place finish, and some of the challenges along the way, are covered in the documentary “Women of the Water: An Olympic Journey.” It premiered at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach on Monday night.
Three members of the team attended the premiere, including Corona del Mar High alumna Maddie Musselman, Rachel Fattal and goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, as well as head coach Adam Krikorian.
“You have to earn success,” said Musselman, 26, the Olympic MVP of the Tokyo Games who was attempting to win her third straight gold medal in Paris. “ I think this is a really good premiere because we lost. I think getting fourth, and seeing the work that goes into it, is really important. It’s like, you can do all this work and still not be successful. I think that’s a hard pill to swallow for us, but I think it’s so good for the younger generation.
“When you go to the national team, you’re not just going to win all of these gold medals that they won in the past. It’s actually going to take a lot of work.”
One person working to promote the sport is Flavor Flav, TV personality and founding member of the rap group Public Enemy known for wearing a big clock necklace. Last summer, he signed a five-year sponsorship deal as the official hype man for the U.S. women’s and men’s national water polo teams, also contributing an undisclosed amount to the 2024 Olympic women’s team.
“I really, really feel that all of these Olympic teams need some sponsorship,” Flavor Flav told the crowd in the theater before the movie began. “Everybody works hard to achieve goals. I want to thank the girls for allowing me to sponsor them. I went over to Paris and had an amazing experience.”
“Women of the Water” is a six-part series with episodes that are roughly 10 minutes long, though all episodes were shown consecutively Monday night. It was shot beginning in early 2024, as Team USA had already secured its Olympic spot.
The series explores loss in Musselman’s life, as her husband, former Mater Dei High and UCLA men’s water polo player Patrick Woepse, whom she’d married in 2023, was diagnosed with a rare form of aggressive stage 4 lung cancer. Woepse made it to Paris to watch Musselman play, but died last October at the age of 31.
Team captain Maggie Steffens also had her sister-in-law Lulu Conner, die unexpectedly after arriving in Paris to watch the team play.
Suzi Mellano served as executive producer and director of the series, which also takes viewers inside practices and intimate moments, including Flavor Flav himself jumping in the pool during a practice. Greg Mescall produced the project with collaboration from associate producer Sherie Smith.
USA Water Polo is aiming to distribute the series broadly, Mescall said, adding that it is the second series that the organization has made. “Path to Paris,” documenting the journey of the Olympic men’s team, debuted last year.
“We’d love to do more of this,” said Mescall, chief of content and growth for USA Water Polo. “Hopefully, there’s an audience for it … What’s cool about it is that you don’t know what you’re going to get, and you document this whole journey. Sure, it didn’t end with a gold medal, but I think it gives you some insight into how tough it is to make a team, and how close this group is, given all the challenges they went through.”
The audience included plenty of young girls’ water polo players and their parents, with Back Bay and Patriot water polo clubs among those with many in attendance.
Newport Harbor High water polo sisters Sophia and Valery Verdugo, who were guided by Musselman as she began coaching for the Sailors in January, also attended the premiere along with several of their teammates.
“I think it’s just really cool to see a water polo movie made,” said Valery Verdugo, a sophomore who played a key role in helping the Sailors reach the CIF Southern Section Open Division title match this season. “I‘ve never really seen one, especially about women’s water polo. We were really excited when it came out, and we wanted to come. It’s in our backyard.”
The evening concluded with a panel discussion featuring Krikorian, Johnson and Fattal.
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