RIO DE JANEIRO — One by one, they approached their coach.
One by one, after the anthem and podium ceremony, the USA water polo women took their gold medals off their own necks.
One by one, they lined up and put all 15 medals over the neck of Adam Krikorian.
Coaches do not receive Olympic medals. Only athletes do. But these athletes wanted their coach to wear and own their medals here Friday afternoon, to know what it felt like, even just for a few minutes.
“We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs,” said Kiley Neushul, the Stanford alum who scored three goals in the USA’s 12-5 victory over Italy. “To put those medals around his neck just felt like giving back what he’s given us.”
After the medals were draped over Krikorian’s chest, he posed for a picture with the team. Many were crying. Krikorian was fighting back tears. If you watched the scene and failed to be moved … well, then you must have been a metal-brained robot. Either that, or you did not know the context.
Two days before these Olympic Games began, Krikorian received tragic news by phone here in Brazil. His 48-year-old brother, Blake, the high-tech entrepreneur and co-founder of Slingbox, had died in the Bay Area of a heart attack while surfing.
So many memories washed over Adam. But he knew what he must do. On the morning of Aug. 4, after addressing his team, Adam flew to Northern California to be with family. On Aug. 8, he returned to Rio in time before his team’s first Olympic competition.
And then? Then Adam Krikorian coached the USA team to the most impressive and devastating Olympic water polo tournament run in history.
The American women outscored their opponents 73 goals to 32 goals over six games. Saturday’s seven-goal victory margin was the largest in Olympic championship match history. It allowed them to repeat their gold-medal performance from four years ago in London.
Krikorian and his players were careful to say that the celebration of emotion they displayed here at Aquatics Stadium was all about their journey of the past four years, not just the last two weeks. It was not about their coach’s personal tragedy. But that played a part. How could it not play a part?
“Yesterday was a special day for all of us,” Krikorian said, “because it was my brother’s birthday. It was probably the most emotional day I’ve had since I came back, because of that. But I just keep coming back to how my brother, who was the coolest dude in the world, would want me to be. Any time I was losing focus or was too emotional, I would think about him and what he would tell me: ‘Man, you’re wasting this moment. Go have a blast. Kick some butt. Go compete. Never give up.’ And when I started thinking about that, it gave me some peace.”
In turn, Krikorian’s players gave him as viciously beautiful a performance as you will see in any swimming pool on any continent.
Water polo is no sport for the timid. Krikorian’s team, once it shook off some early first-quarter jitters, began attacking swiftly with precision and defensive physicality.
On offense, the USA scored twice in the final minute of that first period to take a 4-1 lead and never looked back. Neushul and Makenzie Fischer and Rachel Fattal banked shots in off sideposts, or skipped them off the water, or placed them perfectly in the corners. Eight USA players scored.
All of this, they knew, would make their coach smile. It would fulfill the directive Krikorian gave them — to not walk on eggshells around him because of his personal tragedy, to instead just roll out their usual intensity.
“He’s shown us so much strength,” said Melissa Seidemann, another Stanford alum. “Not that we needed another reason to fight. But he gave us another reason to fight. … I knew this team was ready.”
“We were just ourselves,” Neushul said. “That’s what is going to make him the most happy.”
Yet at times, Krikorian admitted, melancholy mood swings would wash over him. He would be preparing the team for a game, pondering strategy, but find his mind wandering. Thursday, there was a far more warm distraction. Krikorian’s wife, Anicia Mendez, surprised him by flying in from Southern California for the championship game. She showed up at the team practice and they embraced.
“That was a really emotional moment,” Krikorian said. “When you’re so far away from your family, you feel alone sometimes. The group here has done a good job of keeping me kind of close and tight. But it was nice to be able to get that hug.”
Krikorian also found Anicia in the seats here after Friday’s victory and they had another hug, this time with leaky eyes. The 15 gold medals over his neck followed. The players had done the same thing with Krikorian in London in 2012, but this somehow felt more powerful.
“Adam’s dream was to play in the Olympic Games,” said KK Clark, a USA defender. “He was an athlete. We always give him a really hard time because he wasn’t the athlete to get there. But as a coach, he’s living that dream. And we were able to realize that dream for him.”
In the hallway beneath the Aquatics Center, as the emotions subsided, Krikorian turned reflective when someone asked if he was going to continue coaching the U.S. team. It sounded as if he is pondering retirement from coaching period, at age 42.
“I need to take some time and evaluate where I am,” Krikorian said. “It’s such an emotional roller coaster. It’s very important to decompress over the next couple of months. … When you have someone pass away that’s so close to you in your life, you start questioning a lot of things. You start to question the meaning of life, the time that you spend away from your family. And these are all things that I need to take some time to think about.”
If this was his last game and his last team, Krikorian will have that photo of him wearing those gold medals to cherish. He will cherish the women who allowed him to wear them much more.
