News When it comes to women’s water polo, it’s hard to look past the USA The current team are reigning Olympic and world champions (not to mention Pan-American, World Cup and World League title holders), maintaining a strong tradition that has seen the country on the podium in every edition of the Olympic tournament And the bad news for their rivals is they are set to unleash a new generation of stars at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games “We have great leadership in four players who were in London, but we also have some really great new young players,” said captain Maggie Steffens, one of the surviving members of the team that won gold at the London 2012 Games “We have players like Ashleigh Johnson in goal, who is an incredible athlete, and Rachel Fattal, who is probably one of the best shooters in the world We have Kiley Neushul, who is a great all-round player It’s really great new wave of players with a lot of energy and spirit determination It’s an exciting new mix ”Steffens and co are in Rio this week for a tournament featuring some of their main medal rivals: the Netherlands, Australia, China, Brazil and Canada The USA play their first game, against the Dutch, on Friday (13 November) at the picturesque Botafogo Mourisco Mar Stadium, which offers stunning views across the bay to Sugarloaf Mountain, with Christ the Redeemer looking down from the other direction Maggie Steffens poses with Rio 2016 mascot Vinicius (Photo Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro) “To be here and feel the energy and Olympic spirit of Rio is incredible, and it’s really important for us,” Steffens, 22, told rio2016 com The USA still need to confirm their place in the eight-team Rio 2016 tournament via next March’s qualifying competition in the Netherlands, and Steffens said: “It’s a long, tough journey and there are is a lot of competition, but we want to get there The most important thing is that we focus on how we can get better We set high standards for ourselves and every day we try to reach and exceed them ”It is a philosophy that has seen the USA medal on all four occasions that women’s water polo has been contested at the Olympic Games: silver in 2000 and 2008, bronze in 2004, and gold in 2012 Coach Adam Krikorian, who has guided the team since 2009, said: “It starts with having talented players, and it’s also a lot to do with having a competitive culture of hard work and unselfishness, which the athletes buy into, with the older ones leading the younger ones ”For Courtney Mathewson, another of the London 2012 veterans, nothing can be taken for granted “The way women’s water polo is today, if we qualify, the our chances of winning are one in eight,” said the 29-year-old, who was also a member of the team that posed for the 2010 edition of the ESPN magazine’s ‘body issue’ Courtney Mathewson meets Vinicius after training in Botafogo (Photo Rio 2016/Alexandre Loureiro) “It was fun and it was empowering,” she said “It was a celebration of female athletes, of being proud of who we are and what our bodies have to endure in order to play elite-level sport Water polo works the whole body, head to toe, and mentally as well Anyone who swims know it’s a full body workout, on top of that we have passing, shooting, wrestling, all the other components ”USA water polo captain Tony Azevedo using pain of London 2012 as spur for Rio 2016