As the robed members of the U.S. women’s water polo team stood single file at the pool’s edge before their match against Italy at the Paris Olympics, the rapper Flavor Flav stood directly across from them, clapping while the announcer at the Aquatics Centre in St.-Denis, France, listed the American players’ names one by one.
Wearing a personalized water polo cap and jersey and a dessert-plate-size clock on a chain around his neck — all of them red, white and blue — America’s newest (and perhaps most unlikely) water polo fan leaned nervously against a glass barrier and shouted encouragement.
Whenever the United States scored, he raised his wrists — both were adorned with big-faced watches — and shouted gleefully.
He does not care if the players cannot hear him, he said; he prefers that they focus on their assignments anyway.
“They know deep down in their hearts and they know way in the back of their mind that Flav is right there for us,” he said in an interview at a hospitality venue in Paris after the game.
Persons:
Flav, Denis, —, ”
Organizations:
Italy, Paris Olympics, Aquatics, United States
Locations:
St, France, United, Paris