Australian water polo team into gold medal match at Paris Olympics after stunning USA
The Aussie Stingers are into an Olympic water polo gold medal match for the first time since Sydney 2000 after winning a penalty shootoout against Team USA to cap a comeback for the ages.
Divorced parents coming together. Caps being lassoed in the air. Tears shed everywhere you looked.
This was a night that will go down in history for Australian water polo as the Stingers defeated the USA in a dramatic penalty shootout 14-13 to advance to the Olympic gold medal match for the first time since Sydney 2000.
Nerves were high across the La Defense Arena as the Stingers got off to a shaky start against the three-time reigning Olympic champions. The USA took an early 2-0 lead that turned into a 5-2 advantage by the main break.
Previous Aussie teams may have folded under the pressure. But this side is forged of stronger stuff.
Covid ran riot through their squad before a game had even been played. They’d already taken on some of the world’s best teams and come out on top. A three-goal deficit? That was nothing.
“We’ve been away for seven weeks and we’ve talked about how we get through to be on our absolute best every game day, every single time - and it’s about not sweating the small stuff,” Stingers coach Bec Rippon said.
“I just trusted everyone to do their job…I said we just need to do what we can do and stay really calm and enjoy every single moment of it - the good, the bad and the ugly - just stay calm.”
Rippon’s sage words would become the catalyst for their remarkable turnaround.
Abby Andrews was the first of two heroes to rise to the occasion. The 23-year-old single-handedly brought the Aussies back to life, scoring four goals in the third quarter to draw her side level.
Every time the ball hit the back of the net, she responded with a fist pump that could have motivated the entire nation.
“We knew we’d have our opportunities,” Andrews said.
“Early on in that quarter, I looked up and I didn’t think (the American goalkeeper) was honouring me fully, so I took a shot and it went in. Then I did that a few more times, and they all went in.
“It was all because of the setups from my team. Tilly (Kearns) was holding centre so strongly that they had to drop and I had space to move in and really execute.”
The USA can never be written off and they consistently found a way to score. The game finished 8-8 in regular time to send the Stingers to their third shootout of these Olympics.
Enter Gabi Palm. If her 13 blocks during the match weren’t enough, she stood tall to save the USA’s sixth penalty and send her team through to the final.
“Even when I saw it was 8-8, I was like, ‘Penalties, let’s go’,” Palm said.
“She usually shoots to my low left, and the other two she took today, she didn’t shoot there. So I was like, maybe she’s gonna mix it up.
“I realised that I saved it, but then it was like a slow moment of, wait, I saved it, what does it mean? And then I don’t really claim goals, but I was freaking lassoing. It was incredible.
“Are you kidding me? Like, winning a semifinal against the three-time Olympic champs….It was just, ‘Frick yeah’, I couldn’t believe I touched it.”
You only had to look at the Stingers’ celebration to realise the might of their achievement. To defeat the USA, who had only once previously missed out on the gold medal game at the Olympics, is one for the history books.
“My parents are split but they’re still showing some love there,” Andrews said as she re-watched her own celebration on a TV. “I couldn’t stop crying, I still can’t. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.
“The Stingers have got such an incredible history and legacy, and it’s been a while since we’ve been in the gold medal match. To start paving the way and continuing that is really special.”
“They are playing above their level really at the moment,” Rippon added. “I think the team just want to work for each other.”
But there’s still one more game to go against Spain on Sunday night.
A chance to callback to those remarkable scenes from Sydney 2000 and Yvette Higgins’ last-gasp goal against the USA to win gold.
More history awaits the Stingers as they prepare to write the final chapter of this team’s story. And they’re determined to end it with a bang.
“That was the performance of our lifetime,” Andrews said. “And now we have to go win again and turn that into gold.”
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