Sabrina van der Sloot scored with less than a second left on the clock as the Netherlands defeated the United States 11-10 to win bronze in women’s water polo on Saturday, preventing the Americans from winning a medal at the Olympics for the first time.
Van der Sloot’s winner capped an incredible comeback by the Dutch, who trailed 6-9 in the final quarter but scored five goals to topple the three-time champions at the La Defense Arena.
The Netherlands secured their first medal in 16 years after defeating the Americans 9-8 to win gold in the 2008 final in Beijing.
“I’m a little bit in shock,” said US attacker Maddie Musselman. “It shows how important it is to stay in the moment and we couldn’t take advantage of that today.”
The United States has been on the medal podium at every Olympic Games since the women’s competition debuted at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
US coach Adam Krikorian said he felt “sad” for his team but was incredibly proud of them.
“They worked their asses off today. They did everything they could,” he said. “Holland was obviously the better team today. … This is going to hurt for a while.”
The US team’s most vocal supporter and sponsor, Flavor Flav, rapper and founding member of Public Enemy, offered his support to the team on social media.
I love my girls and am so proud of them. We have introduced water polo to a new audience and we are just getting started. We went to LA28.
— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) 10 August 2024
Van der Sloot led the Netherlands to victory with six goals from seven shots and two in the final quarter.
With the score at 10:10, the Dutch team took a timeout with eight seconds left after forcing a turnover.
After the break, Van der Sloot had possession of the ball, confronted the crowded US goal, ran and fired a rocket shot that bounced off the water and beat US goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson at the right post.
“I thought they were going to attack me because I had already shot five balls,” Van der Sloot said of the final sequence. “So, yeah, I thought to myself: ‘Well, if you don’t attack me, I’ll just shoot.’ And it was unbelievable that the ball went in.”
With 0.7 seconds left, the Americans had just enough time for one last attempt, but Johnson’s long-range shot was easily blocked in front of the goal.
“We talked about learning from our mistakes and wanting to get better,” U.S. captain Maggie Steffens said. “And I feel like we struggled today to consistently learn from our mistakes. We allowed some really easy counterattack goals and didn’t force Holland to score difficult goals when we were up by three goals.”
Australia will face Spain in the gold medal match later on Saturday.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
