South Carolina HC Dawn Staley poses with Team USA's water polo squad at Paris Olympics 2024: "I totally fangirled for these women"

South Carolina's Dawn Staley is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The three-time NCAA championship-winning coach was part of the Presidential delegation with the First Lady of the USA, Jill Biden, at the opening ceremony on Friday.

As the games began on Saturday, Staley attended them to support the Team USA Athletes. The first on the list was water polo, where the USA took on Greece. The Gamecocks coach posed for photos with the athletes and posted them to her X.

"Yall…..I totally fangirled for these women….. @USAWP! When I tell you yall rock! Yall freaking rock! I’ll be back to see you in that GOLDEN light! Every single one of you were super cool," she wrote.

Coach Staley also visited the Paris La Défense Arena where the swimming competitions were being held. She was joined by Brian Boitano, a three-time Olympic gold medallist and a member of the Presidential delegation.

"My fellow Olympic Gold Medalist @BrianBoitano and I are having the time of out lives! @USASwimming on deck! U S A! U S A!! U S A!"she wrote.

A look at Dawn Staley's Olympic journey

A newly graduated Dawn Staley had high hopes of making it to the women's basketball roster for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. After leading the Virginia Cavaleirs to three straight Final Four appearances and establishing herself as the best point guard, she thought she had made her case. But, she failed to make the contingent.

"They told me there were two reasons why I got cut," Staley recounted (via ESPN). "One was I was too short. Two, I didn't have enough international experience. I couldn't do anything about my height, but I surely could check off going overseas and playing internationally. But guards were a dime a dozen."

Her agent tried to get her a spot on an international team, but it wasn't easy to come by as teams had restrictions on the number of Americans allowed. Fromm 1992 to 1994, Dawn Staley played for teams in Brazil, France, Italy, and Spain. She remembers it as a tough time as she was terribly homesick and raked up nearly $2,000 in phone bills.

"I sucked it up because I wanted to be an Olympian," Staley said. "I wasn't going to leave. I had to be an Olympian."

Staley finally made the 1996 Atlanta Olympics roster and won gold. She also led Team USA to gold in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004), where she was the flag bearer, the first-ever basketball player to do so. She returned as a coach for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning gold once again.