Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Louise Thomas
Editor
Madeline Musselman’s husband Patrick Woepse supported her at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite his lung cancer battle.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 26-year-old Olympian had her husband cheering her on from the sidelines as she competed for gold alongside her water polo teammates. Recently, the couple opened up about Woepse’s rare cancer diagnosis in an interview with NBC Los Angeles.
“It’s a stage four lung cancer-specific mutation,” Woepse told the outlet. “At that time I didn’t know what that meant.”
Although Musselman and Woepse both played water polo for UCLA, they ultimately met at a friend’s wedding in 2022 and they tied the knot the following year, primarily because life had thrown them a curveball as Woepse had received a rare cancer diagnosis just months after they’d gotten engaged. He’d begun to notice something was amiss as he was training to swim the English Channel when he developed a cough that wouldn’t go away.
“It was a nagging cough that didn’t go away,” he told Today. “I didn’t really think much of it other than it didn’t seem any different than … any normal cough I’ve had before.”
“I never smoked. We have a pretty healthy lifestyle,” he added. “Hearing that news was a huge shock and obviously devastating.”
After his doctors discovered a “mass” during an X-ray and promptly did a biopsy, they informed him that he had a rare, aggressive cancer called “NUT carcinoma,” which thrives in the head, neck, and lungs, according to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“With Pat’s diagnosis, we decided we wanted to get married as soon as possible,” Musselman said to NBC Los Angeles. “All the people that came together to make it happen within four days – it was pretty crazy. We had flowers. We had a church that welcomed us with open arms to marry us. It was just a perfect weekend.”
Both would continue to support each other as they chased their athletic goals, with Woepse going on to swim the English Channel and Musselman becoming a Tokyo Olympics MVP. However, as her Olympic training ramped up, it began to coincide with her husband’s chemotherapy treatments.
“There are times where I wanted to be with him, but he’s like, ‘No, you have to go to practice,’” she noted. “Obviously, I want him to know that I’m there, but yeah, it’s been hard.”
However, for Woepse, his wife’s Olympic training only served to motivate him to keep pushing forward with his treatments and led him to ultimately be able to watch her lead her team to victory against Greece this week.
“We’re sharing our story not for people to feel sorry for us or feel bad for what we’re going through,” she explained. “If anything it’s for inspiration and that you can get to the other side of things. With the people that are right next to you, we hope for that.”
