Olympics-Water Polo-Hype man Flavor Flav goes all in to help U.S. secure fourth gold

By Rohith Nair

PARIS (Reuters) - The U.S. women's team can win an unprecedented fourth straight gold medal in water polo at the Paris Olympics and the most vocal supporter in their corner is American rapper and hype man Flavor Flav, who is sponsoring the team.

An unlikely partnership was formed when skipper Maggie Steffens put out a call for financial support in May and Flav leapt into action, offering to sponsor the team while also using his celebrity status to shine the spotlight on them.

The 65-year-old founding member of American rap group Public Enemy went viral when he trained with the squad in the pool and he arrived on Friday wearing a USA water polo cap and jersey, immediately stealing the show.

"I've got three stars in my cap, I want a fourth star on my cap. My goal is to try to push these girls, man, to getting that fourth gold medal," Flav said.

"I'm having a lot of fun doing this and I just want to thank the girls too for even accepting my offer of sponsorship for the team.

"I'm going to try to be to as many games as I can. I might not be able to be at every single game, but you'll see me at a lot of the games, definitely."

Flav did not get into the specifics of the sponsorship deal but revealed there was a bonus for the players and their families, with a cruise trip lined up after the Games.

"Another thing that I'm doing for the team - and I'm proud to do for the team - is after this water polo thing is over, I'm putting them all on a Virgin cruise with them and their families," he said.

"And also I got a special gift for them at the end of the water polo."

Water polo is his main focus but Flav also wants to take in some basketball action with NBA and WNBA greats in action in Paris but his "favourite athlete" is artistic gymnast and seven-times Olympic medallist Simone Biles.

"This girl, man, is so devastating. She's going on her ninth medal right now. That's crazy," Flav added.

"I want to see her get it, I want to see her achieve that. I'm a very big fan of hers."

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Paris; Editing by Toby Davis)