Olympian Madeline Musselman, who plays water polo for Team USA, is being cheered on in her goal for a third gold medal in Paris by her husband — and nothing is going to stop him from supporting her.
Musselman, who is competing in her third Olympics and was named MVP for her team in Tokyo 2020, is married to Patrick Woepse, a fellow college water polo player who is currently battling a rare form of lung cancer.
The couple, who both played their sport in college at UCLA, met in 2022 at a friend’s wedding. A year later, they found themselves engaged, then struggling to make sense of a medical diagnosis that abruptly turned their lives upside down.
“It’s a stage four lung cancer specific mutation,” Woepse told NBC Los Angeles in an interview published on TK, TKDATE. “At that time I didn’t know what that meant.”
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The two decided to marry as soon as possible, due to Woepse’s uncertain life expectancy. “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,” Musselman told the outlet.
Woepse’s diagnosis, however, didn’t stop him from cheering on his wife on her journey to Paris, even as he underwent chemotherapy treatments. He encouraged her to go to practices, even when she wanted to be by his side during his health struggles.
“There are times where I wanted to be with him, but he’s like, ‘No, you have to go to practice,’” Musselman said.
Woepse not only urged Musselman to stick to her schedule, he even managed to make it to Paris so that he could see his wife and the U.S. women’s water polo team beat Greece this week — cheering her on and ultimately celebrating with her in person.
“This was my biggest goal, with everything being so unknown,” Woepse shared ofhis experience to NBC. “So pretty emotional, emotional day for me. Couldn’t be more thrilled to be here to support Maddie and the team.”
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“We’re sharing our story not for people to feel sorry for us or feel bad for what we’re going through,” Musselman explained of their unusual situation. “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.”
