Maggie Steffens is a water polo legend. With three gold medals already in her possession (2012, 2016, 2020), if she claims a fourth in Paris, she will join an exclusive company of athletes – among them Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis and Al Oerter – who have won the same event at four consecutive Olympic Games.
Maggie hails from a water polo family; her father, Carlos, played on the Puerto Rico national team, and her sister, Jessica (also an NYAC player) claimed an Olympic silver in 2008 and joined Maggie in winning gold medals in 2012. In addition to her three Olympic victories, Maggie can point to five world championship titles (2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024), four Pan Am Games victories (2011, 2015, 2019, 2023) and 10 FINA World League Super Final wins.
At her first Olympics, in 2012, she tied the record for most goals in a single Games (21); at the Tokyo Games, she brought her cumulative tally to 56, the most goals ever scored by a woman in Olympic water polo competition.
A Stanford graduate with a B.S. in Science, Technology and Society and an M.S. in Management, Science and Engineering (plus NCAA D1 titles in 2014, 2015, and 2017), Maggie will captain the US team in Paris with every intent of burnishing the team’s, and her own, reputation still more.
Paris Result:
4th place; Eliminated in the bronze medal match.