Born in Newport Beach, CA on May 16th1992.

Instagram: Kaleighgilchrist

Water Polo Achievements:

Won CIF Championship at Newport Harbor High school in 2008

Won NCAA Championship at the University of Southern California in 2013

2X Olympian and 2X Gold Medalist (Rio and Tokyo)

Hobbies outside the pool

Enjoy spending time with my family, friends and dogs, the beach, my hometown and of course surfing.

When you started playing water polo?

8 years old at Newport Club

How did you get into water polo?

My best friend played so I decided to join!

Did you play any other sports growing up? Can you speak a little about your surfing career? 

I was a tomboy and played all types of sports growing up, but gravitated towards surfing and water polo. I loved both so much that I wasn’t willing to pick just one and that was the beginning of my crazy schedule of surfing before and in between double day trainings for water polo. I was fortunate to compete for Team USA in the ISA World Surfing Games from 2006-2011 with a 9thplace best finish, I also won back-to-back under 18 American Championships in 2009 and 2010. I decided to go to college and play water polo instead of pursue my surfing career. I struggled with the decision for awhile, but looking back on it, it was the right one for me. I still compete on the World Qualifying Series and am looking forward to what’s to come for my surfing career after water polo is over.