Sabrina van der Sloot scored with less than a second on the clock as the Netherlands stunned the United States 11-10 for bronze in women’s water polo on Saturday to deny the Americans a medal for the first time at the Olympics.
Van der Sloot’s winner capped an incredible comeback by the Dutch, who trailed 9-6 in the final quarter but tallied five goals to topple the three-time champions at Paris La Defense Arena.
The Netherlands secured their first medal in 16 years, having beaten the Americans 9-8 for gold in the 2008 final in Beijing.
“I’m a little bit in shock,” said U.S. attacker Maddie Musselman. “It just shows the importance of staying in the moment, and we weren’t able to capitalize on that today.”
The U.S. had finished on the medal podium at every Olympics since the debut of the women’s event at the 2000 Sydney Games.
U.S. coach Adam Krikorian said he felt “sadness” for his team but was incredibly proud of them.
“They worked their butts off today. They did everything they could,” he said. “Holland obviously was the better team today. … It’s going to hurt for a while.”
The U.S. team’s most vocal backer and sponsor Flavor Flav, the rapper and founding member of Public Enemy, consoled the team on social media.
I love my girls,,, and imma so proud of them. We introduced Water Polo to a new audience and we just getting started,,, We headed to LA28.
— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 10, 2024
Van der Sloot carried the Netherlands to victory with six goals from seven shots and two in the last quarter.
With the score locked at 10-10, the Netherlands staff called a timeout with eight seconds left after forcing a turnover.
In possession after the restart, Van der Sloot confronted a crowded U.S. goalmouth before winding up and launching a rocket that skipped off the water and beat U.S. keeper Ashleigh Johnson inside the right post.
“I thought that they were going to attack me because I already scored five balls,” Van der Sloot said of the final sequence. “So yeah, I was like, ‘Well, if you’re not going to attack me, I’m going to shoot it,’ and it was amazing that it went in.”
With 0.7 seconds left on the clock, the U.S. had just enough time for one last fling, but Johnson’s long-range effort was easily blocked in front of the cage.
“We’ve talked about just trying to learn from our mistakes and getting better,” U.S. captain Maggie Steffens said. “And I feel today we struggled to continually learn from our mistakes. We gave up some really easy counterattack goals and not forcing Holland to score difficult goals when we’re up by three.”
Krikorian’s future as coach was among the biggest questions for the U.S. program in the aftermath of the Paris Games. Jamie Davis takes over as CEO of USA Water Polo on Oct. 1, so there likely won’t be a decision on the coaching front for months.
Krikorian openly wondered after the fourth-place finish in Paris if it might be time for a change.
“There’s moments in which I feel like new leadership may be good,” he said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, so your message sometimes gets a little stale in moments.”
Spain defeated Australia 11-9 in the gold medal match.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
