Flavor Flav vows to fund the US women’s water polo team for 2024 Olympics: ‘That’s a Flavor Flav promise’
The U.S. women’s water polo team captain shed light on the hidden costs of being an Olympian, and Flavor Flav offered to help.
For even the most elite athletes, qualifying for the Olympics is only one part of the battle. The next step is finding the funding to compete in international sports events. Unbeknownst to most, U.S. Olympic teams are largely privately funded — and sometimes, that funding comes from an unexpected source, like hip-hop icon Flavor Flav.
After Maggie Steffens, the captain of the 2024 U.S. women’s water polo team, recently shed light on how challenging it can be to raise the money to compete, the “Don’t Believe the Hype” rapper vowed to come to her aid in the comments.
“Some may not know this, but most Olympians need a 2nd (or 3rd) job to support chasing the dream (myself included!) and most teams rely on sponsors for travel, accommodations, nutritional support, rent/lodging and simply affording to live in this day and age,” Steffens, 30, began in the caption of a May 4 post on Instagram.
She continued, “Especially female sports and female athletes. We’ve had companies & amazing individuals support our sport alongside donors, USAWP & USOPC, but we always need more help.”
In response, Flav wrote, “AYYY YOOO,,, as a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports – imma personally sponsor you, my girl, whatever you need. And imma sponsor the whole team.”
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Flav is a father to eight children, including four daughters. He shares daughters Shanique Drayton, Karren Drayton, and Karla Drayton with ex-girlfriend Karen Ross, daughter Da’Zyna Drayton and sons Quanah Drayton and William Drayton with another ex, Angie Parker, and son Karma Drayton with his wife, Elizabeth Trujillo. In 2022, the father learned he also had a son named Jordan, 4.
In his response to Steffens, the reality TV star added that his manager would be reaching out to her agent to figure out how he could help and repeated his willingness to use his resources to provide whatever the team might need.
“That’s a FLAVOR FLAV promise,” he said.
As the U.S. Women’s Water Polo team gears up for this summer’s Olympic games, they already have three gold wins – in 2012, 2016, and 2020 – under their belt. However, as many athletes, including Steffens, have shared, competing at the global level is a costly endeavor. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are spent just to train ahead of time, in addition to the cost of travel.
According to the Olympics’ website, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses money generated from the Olympics to help fund athletes and sports organizations around the world. Meanwhile, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee also raises money to help offset the financial burden on athletes.
Flavor Flav is only the latest celebrity and rapper to show support for the U.S. team ahead of July. In a recent campaign for NBC, Cardi B got manicures with Olympic runner Sha’Carri Richardson and declared that she would be attending just to see the track star.
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are set to begin on Friday, July 26.
