Flavor Flav Bets Big on Team USA Women at SHE Weekend

  ^{Flavor Flav and Tick Segerblom stand with Team USA athletes as they hold the proclamation naming July 16 as Flavor Flav Day. (Photo: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)}

LAS VEGAS — Rapper and reality TV personality Flavor Flav saw a chance to celebrate female athletes and decided to go all out after President Donald Trump’s late and somewhat obligatory invitation to U.S. women’s Olympic athletes. After watching the U.S. women's hockey team win gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, he thought that these women deserved a real celebration. Thanks to a GoFundMe that raised over $135,000 and the Clark County Commission’s approval, SHE Weekend came to life. 

On Thursday, Flavor Flav partnered with MGM Resorts to welcome many Olympic gold medalists, Paralympians, and women athletes from across the Games to Las Vegas. From July 16 to 19, they would get to experience Vegas to the fullest extent and enjoy a weekend all about them.

Casinos.com was there to witness it all, from when the buses of athletes pulled up to the Strip to the moment all the women received the key to the Strip. Every woman part of the big weekend was entitled to a full weekend in Vegas after spending years training and winning at the highest level.

MGM Resorts stepped up to provide more than 100 complimentary hotel rooms to the athletes, along with real Vegas hospitality and entertainment. Delta Air Lines, the official airline of Team USA, even covered its flights.

"All of us at MGM Resorts and across Las Vegas are so fired up for SHE Weekend," said Ashley Farkas, VP of public relations for MGM. "This is our opportunity to recognize these amazing athletes and give them the gold medal celebration that they deserve."

Flavor Flav: "Success Is in the Building"

All the festivities started off at Park MGM, where a crowd gathered in the lobby to help give the athletes a warm welcome. Anyone who didn't know what was happening was appropriately confused by the roped-off sections, the pom-poms, and the American flags being handed out to everyone standing nearby. It was exciting to see all the patriotic energy building before the athletes or Flavor Flav even walked in.

Fans wait to welcome athletes in Park MGM’s hotel lobby.

Right around 6:00 p.m, Flavor Flav came dancing into the lobby, clock swinging and all. The Olympians all followed behind him, all walking in from where the buses had pulled up. A shocking number of people had gathered around to welcome everyone. Athletes proudly strode in one after another, including Alex Carpenter from the U.S. women's hockey team, who stopped to speak briefly with the media.

I found myself scanning every face as they came through, hoping to see Alysa Liu, one of my favorite Olympians who broke records in figure skating this year. I was also looking closely for Amber Glenn, another of my favorite gold medal-winning athletes. Alysa Liu was in New York on Thursday night for the Time 100 Sports Gala, but I was excited to see Amber Glenn walking in, along with so many others who looked proud to be there. You didn't necessarily need to know every name and face to recognize what each of them had earned.

Both the crowds of fans and the athletes didn’t hold back their excitement in seeing Flavor Flav walk into Park MGM.

After the welcome settled, I got to speak with Flavor Flav, and he had a lot of pride in what he had pulled together. He was clear about what separated this celebration from anything the athletes had been offered elsewhere.

 "I just wanna say, politically speaking: Donald Trump, my girls are gonna get a way better celebration than what you gave the guys,” Flav said. “I know that. Because my girls are gonna be eating shrimp, lobster, steaks — not McDonald's. Or Taco Bell."

Beyond his flexing, he reaffirmed that this weekend's focus should be on the athletes’ hard work and on recognizing their success.

"Success is in the building, you know what I'm saying?” he said. “In order to succeed, you can't be afraid to fail, because failure is part of success. That's what I want these girls to take away from this. If you can do it once, you can always do it again."

He was also grateful for MGM Resorts’ support for this event and for so many companies stepping up as partners to make SHE Weekend happen at the scale it did. Stephanie Glanzer, Chief Sales Officer & Senior VP of MGM Resorts, captured the spirit of why it mattered beyond the weekend itself:

"Whether it’s the Knights and they’ve done for the hockey community, especially women's sports…We want for a little girl to be able to say, ‘I can be a part of that, and I can do that.’ We wanna show that it’s possible."

Olympians Receive Keys to the Strip

After the athletes dispersed from Park MGM, it was time for the parade. It was hot even without the sun beating down, but the crowd didn’t waver. The parade ran from 8 to 8:30 pm, circling Park MGM along Las Vegas Boulevard, then heading down to Toshiba Plaza in front of T-Mobile Arena.

Alongside the Olympians and other female athletes, Vegas youth sports teams were part of the parade.

Before the athletes arrived, a parade of community organizations and local youth athletes led them in and built the energy all the way to Toshiba Plaza. The Las Vegas Aces made an appearance, because how could you celebrate women's sports in this city without the hyped women's basketball team showing up? 

The moment that brought everything together was when Tick Segerblom, Clark County Commission chairman, took the stage with Flavor Flav to present personalized keys to the Strip to all of the athletes.

"Flavor saw what was happening, stepped up to the plate, threw this event, and look what you created," Segerblom said. "On behalf of the Clark County Commission, today is Flavor Flav Day."

Segerblom showed off a proclamation officially naming Thursday, July 16, as Flavor Flav Day in Clark County, in honor of everything he had put together. Flavor Flav, who had spent hours in commission meetings to make this happen, brought several of his kids on stage for the moment. 

Flavor Flav addresses the crowd in front of Team USA female athletes during the SHE Weekend parade.

It was a bit mind-boggling to turn to the left and see all Olympians dispersed among the front of the stage with the media. Some had their medals on, and some didn't, so you couldn’t tell exactly who was part of the special group. Either way, all of them had worked incredibly hard to be standing there, and being in the middle of that was surreal to say the least.

Being surrounded by that many elite athletes is an excellent reminder to lock in at the gym… they have some insane muscles.

During that time, I had the true honor of meeting gold medal winner Amber Glenn in the crowd and congratulating her. Glenn is an openly LGBTQ+ skater and has been extremely outspoken in her sport this year. And there were so many other fans who got to see her and take pictures with many other athletes in that group. 

After everything wrapped up, Flavor Flav and Public Enemy performed a concert at Toshiba Plaza. The heat had been relentless even after dark, so it was more of a treat for those who could endure being outside for so long. But Flav brought every bit of energy he had, even after all the festivities. And even better, it was a free concert, open to the public.

Team USA Hits the Casino Floor 

Even with the athletes leaving Toshiba Plaza, the celebration wasn’t over for everyone. Later that night, Amber Glenn and Ilona Maher made an apparent appearance in Park MGM's table game streaming area, Live from Park MGM, to play some blackjack. How can you do Vegas without stopping on the casino floor, right? 

There was an official SHE weekend afterparty at On the Record, the nightclub and lounge inside Park MGM, for anyone who wanted to keep going. 

It's only Friday, so there's even more to come for this weekend. Tailgate Beach Club will host an official World Cup viewing where some of those same Olympians are expected to show up. And just maybe, Alysa Liu will be there, and some other amazing athletes will make surprise appearances!

Thursday was a great reminder of what it looks like when people in the entertainment business use their power and influence for good, to give people the spotlight they deserve. So many people gathered, even in triple-digit heat, to support these women.

Despite the President not giving them a proper celebration, all of these Olympians found themselves in the middle of Vegas with thousands of people watching, both in person and on social media. Flavor Flav says he’d love this to become an annual event, so time will only tell what’s in store for years to come.

(Photos: Vanessa Alves-Johnson / Casinos.com)