As Maddie Musselman gears up for a historic gold medal bid at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the water polo star reflected on her journey with Team USA.
"I used to leave practice and be like, 'I'm not gonna get invited back. I didn't make one goal today. I didn't block one ball,'" Musselman told NBC.at the age of 15 in 2013, one year after the United States earned Olympic gold in water polo for the first time. It was around then that the Newport Beach, California, native would worry she'd lose her roster spot if she didn't stand out.
"I used to be 15 on this team and I showed up and had no idea what was going on," Musselman told NBC."I used to leave practice and be like, 'I'm not gonna get invited back. I didn't make one goal today. I didn't block one ball.'"product then tallied 18 goals at the 2020 Games, earning tournament MVP honors and her second gold medal in the process.
"You should want to be failing. That's only going to make you better because I failed all the time when I first joined," Musselman said.As she sits on the brink of Olympic history, Musselman has certainly come a long way since her early days with the national team. And the two-time gold medalist is grateful for those past experiences that helped her grow into the player, teammate and leader she is today.
"I went from the young one who knew nothing and got to walk in the shadows and the footsteps of all these amazing athletes," Musselman said."I learned how to be a good leader, how to communicate effectively, and become more experienced in the sport itself and more confident in who I am." Water polo star Maddie Musselman declared her desire to be an Olympian in her sixth-grade yearbook. Her passion for sport grew from playing on an all-boys team as a young girl.
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