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US water polo captain Maggie Steffens tossed flowers into the Seine from Team USA’s opening ceremony boat to honor her late sister-in-law Lulu Conner, who died in Paris just days before the games began.
Conner went to Paris to cheer on Steffens as she competed for her fourth Olympic gold medal. She died on Tuesday due to a “medical emergency.” The Associated Press first reported the news of the woman’s death. A representative for the US Water Polo team confirmed Conner’s death to The Independent.
She was the 26-year-old sister of Steffens’ husband Bobby Conner. The family has not released details of her cause of death.
“She was so excited for the Olympic Games,” Steffens told The Associated Press on Sunday. “We’re really close. She’s the light of the world. She just brings so much joy to everyone. She always brings people together.”
Conner had made clock necklaces for members of the women’s water polo team and rapper Flavor Flav, the team’s hype man.
Steffens said her team has been rallying behind her in the aftermath of her loss.
“I’ve been obviously really struggling, and my husband as well, and his entire family. I mean, it’s a nightmare, and it’s completely shocking. But I think just feeling her spirit here is, like I said, it’s amazing. And I hope that we can make her proud every single day,” she said.
The athlete managed to score two goals while playing against Greece on Saturday. The US won 15 to 6. Steffens is the highest-scoring woman in Olympic history with 58 goals.
The team will be playing against Spain on Monday.
“It definitely helps to play,” Steffens said. “I’m like so out of body in a way right now. And I just keep trying to remind myself what Lulu would want and how she would be, you know, how can I embody her spirit the best. And Lulu was somebody that she gave 150 percent to everything she did.”
Steffens’ coach Adam Krikorian told the AP his brother, Blake, died days before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil. He flew home from Rio and managed to return just in time to coach the team’s first game.
“You know, when it happens, it’s like all the emotions come pouring back to you,” he told the outlet. “You might not feel these emotions that often, but then they just come rushing back.”
Steffens, 31, married her husband, Bobby Conner, in November.
