The Morning Swim Show, August 21, 2012: Maggie Steffens Was Big Component of USA Water Polo Gold Medal

PHOENIX, Arizona, August 21. MAGGIE Steffens is one of the reasons the U.S. women's water polo team won the gold medal in London, and on today's edition of The Morning Swim Show she talks about the experience of finally getting the Americans an Olympic title in women's water polo.

Steffens scored more than 20 goals in the Olympic tournament, and she relives the thrill of playing Spain twice in the tournament, keep the energy high for two weeks and finally realizing the team dream that has been in the forefront since 2008. Be sure to visit SwimmingWorld.TV for more video interviews.

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Morning Swim Show Transcripts
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Jeff Commings: This is the Morning Swim Show for Tuesday, August 21st, 2012. I am your host Jeff Commings. The United States Women's Water Polo team have finally won Olympic gold and it is due in no small part to the tournament MVP Maggie Steffens who joins us today in the FINIS Monitor from her home in Danneville, California. Maggie welcome to the Morning Swim Show, how are you today?

Maggie Steffens: Good, thank you for having me.

Jeff: I am sure you are a little bit jet lagged but that high of winning an Olympic gold is probably offsetting all that.

Maggie: Yeah, just a little bit. You can hear it in my voice. I haven't slept very well. The past two nights that–

Jeff: Well you know it is to be expected. So again congratulations on that gold medal, do you have it with you there?

Maggie: I do. I always have it with me. Here it is.

Jeff: Absolutely pretty. Is it — a lot of people say this, actually, is it pretty heavy?

Maggie: Yeah it is really heavy. Every time I give it to somebody they are not expecting it. It was, “Whoa, it's so heavy I didn't know.” And I am always like, “Yeah.”

Jeff: Yeah, I am sure like you said you are never going to have that leave your side, at least until the 2016 Rio Games when you can have a companion for it.

Maggie: Yeah hopefully, knock on wood.

Jeff: Yeah so it has been about a week. When did the reality of winning that gold medal sink in?

Maggie: To be honest, I don't think it has happened yet. I feel like I have, we were so focused on the tournament and this has been our goal training for over 3 years and my goal in life for, since I was 5 years old or what not, so I feel like I am still kind of living n the moment and just taking everything in and we just won a Water Polo game, okay and then would move on, but then as I come home and everybody is like so excited to see the medal. It starts to sink in but I don't think I really hit reality yet that we did it

.Jeff: Well you definitely were on fire at this tournament. You scored 21 goals in a span of 2 weeks. How is the arm doing?

Maggie: It's doing pretty good actually.

Jeff: Well it is a lot of competition over — during the Olympics. You guys play I believe 6 games over the whole tournament. I mean how do you guys keep your enthusiasm and energy level up for each game as it goes on throughout the tournament?

Maggie: I think it is really using each other for energy. We wanted this for so long and we have worked so hard to get here that in our off days we would like to have fun with each other and just remind each other that is just a Water Polo Tournament, just a water polo game so not getting too involved on off days just letting ourselves have fun with each other, but then on game days we would just really focus on one game that day and I think that is what got us through those long 2 weeks for sure.

Jeff: Well I think probably one of the more nailbiting matches was that preliminary match against Spain where you tied 9 to 9 and you guys ended up facing them again in the final. Knowing how that match went in the prelims, how did that affect how you played against Spain in the final?

Maggie: We really wanted to play Spain. You know that was the only team — a lot of people were talking about Spain in the tournament. They were undefeated, but so were we, we just tied them and we wanted to play them again so we could show to ourselves and show to the world that we were the better team and that we deserve this gold medal and you know I think that we, and it was good for us. We ended up coming second out of our bracket because we tied to Spain and then that we ended up kind of taking the more difficult route. I would say we played Italy in the quarter final and Australia in the semifinal, which ended up going into overtime and those have been two of the top teams in the past 4 years. So we were really excited to you know show our way, beat these other teams and be able to play Spain again and be like we are USA, “That tie doesn't matter, this is a new game. This is a more important game.”

Jeff: What was it like to have your older sister there on the team with you?

Maggie: Oh it was really fun. We had so much fun together. We actually shared a room together in the village, in our apartments, and at first I was a little nervous because you know how siblings get, we always fight a little bit, but this actually made us closer I think because there is so much going on and we really have a lot of respect for each other and she had a great tournament and we really enjoyed ourselves the most during that 3 week period.

Jeff: Yeah, I can't imagine there is another sibling rivalry I mean you are competing against each other, you are competing with each other.

Maggie: Yeah, no not at all. You know it think in training you are always competing against each other, you are always beating your teammates up so it is fun to be able to actually play against other teams and beat them up with each other, you know so for sure.

Jeff: Now you played soccer and you were a swimmer correct?

Maggie: Yeah.

Jeff: Well I can imagine that Water Polo is that perfect combination for you.

Maggie: Oh for sure. Water Polo is a combination of so many different sports and that is why I love it so much. You know, I grew up in a swimming family and started swimming when I was like 2-years old in 6 and unders whatever and then I did soccer and basketball and I tried volleyball here and there and so when Water Polo came out it was such a combination of everything I had done. It just seemed so natural to me and it was way more fun in the sense because there is so much to it, but it was so quick paced that you could really get into it and yeah once I started playing I was like this is it. This is my sport.

Jeff: Well given how, well I mean I played Water Polo before. Given how grueling it seems physically, would you say Water Polo players are the fittest aquatic sport athletes?

Maggie: I would like to say that. I don't want to put it down any other aquatic sports, but I do think that water polo is the most demanding on your body in terms of water, and it was even voted in this year as the most demanding sport or most you have to be like the most in shape for it and I really do believe that because it is like basketball where you are going up and down, up and down the whole game. It is not like there is defense and offense and you get to kind of chill between segments.

Jeff: Now two other players on the team with you Annika Dries and Melissa Seidemann are going to be with you at Stanford.

Maggie: Yeah.

Jeff: This year. I got to imagine if I were playing. If I went to another college team playing Stanford I would say you know what is the point. They have got 3 Olympian gold medalist on their team. You guys have got to be pretty stoked about how the season is going to be turning out.

Maggie: Yeah, we are really excited. It is going to be fun especially for me. I am just excited to go to college in general and finally be a student, but as for the Water Polo, we are just excited to go and get to play with each other for at least one more year and in a different environment. International Water Polo so much different than Collegiate Water Polo and you know we even have Kiley Neushul who was pretty much MVP of College Water Polo last year and is going to be a sophomore. So we have a lot of really, really great individuals on the team but all of the individuals are really good team players. You know Mel and Annie are great team players and so I think that is really going to mesh well and it will be fun to play together.

Jeff: Yeah, everybody is going to be definitely looking at you given that how well you play at the Olympics. Maggie thanks so much for joining us, congratulations again on your gold medal.

Maggie: Thank you

.Jeff: We are looking forward to seeing how you do not just in this collegiate season, but I would imagine next year at the World Championships.

Maggie: Yeah hopefully we can– I would love to get a world championship medal since we didn't do too well in 2011. Jeff: Yeah well absolutely. Well thanks again Maggie and have a good rest of the day.

Maggie: Thanks you too.

Jeff: All right so that s Water Polo MVP — MVP is putting it mildly — Maggie Steffens. That is going to do it for today's Morning Swim Show, I am Jeff Commings. Thanks for watching.

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