Szabo: Gilchrist enjoys gold
The first Saturday as an Olympic gold medalist was special for Kaleigh Gilchrist.
As she has done for most of her life, the Newport Harbor High and USC alumna managed to juggle both surfing and water polo.
In the morning, Gilchrist had her first surf back at 54th Street in Newport Beach. Friends got to check out her gold medal from Rio de Janeiro, which she earned as part of the U.S. Olympic women’s water polo team. She said it was special to have Tom Cozad of Newport Surf Shots, who has supported her from the beginning of her surf career, there to take photos.
Gold also was literally a theme later that night, when Gilchrist celebrated the Rio hardware with a gold-themed party at CP Restaurant and Lounge in Newport Beach. Cindy Chien, the CP general manager, was nice enough to invite the Daily Pilot. I showed up around 10 p.m., and the music was already cranking and the drinks were flowing.
Gilchrist said Chien has been a long-time supporter of hers. She also had her 24th birthday at CP earlier this year.
I interviewed Gilchrist by phone the next day, Sunday, as it was fairly impossible to conduct an interview at the party on Saturday night. Not with the huge turnout of more than 200 people, who packed the bar area, patio and the dance floor. The guest list included Team USA women’s water polo team captain and Olympics MVP Maggie Steffens, who also lives in Newport Beach, as well as teammates Kami Craig and Melissa Seidemann. Gilchrist said that fellow Newport Harbor High graduate Charlie Buckingham, who competed in the Olympics this summer in sailing, also made an appearance.
“It was really fun having everyone there together,” Gilchrist said, adding that she had some of her closest friends from Northern California also in attendance. “All of my friends have supported me through not just water polo, but surfing as well. They’ve kind of been there through all of the successes and failures. It was cool to come together [Saturday] night and have all of us together to celebrate.”
There were plenty of familiar faces at the party. Chase Watson, another USC water polo graduate, stands out in a crowd at 6-foot-7. It was also great to meet Cailen Sullivan, who has known Gilchrist since their days at Newport Elementary.
Sullivan wore a gold pom-pom under his Team USA bucket hat at the party. He also had on a custom-made shirt, which had a silhouette of Gilchrist’s head in red, white and blue colors on the front and read “Gilchrist 10” on the back.
Sullivan wasn’t going to miss this party. He also went to Rio to watch Gilchrist win gold.
“We had a very close group of guys who flew there,” he said. “The second that she won gold, everyone was crying. We were all standing there, tears coming down our face, cheering the loudest we’ve ever cheered in our life. It probably took about 10 minutes for her to get to the podium. The second she stood on the podium? Tears, man.”
Sullivan, who played volleyball at Newport Harbor, said he wasn’t surprised to see Gilchrist have success. She stood out athletically well before her teenage years.
“She played in all the boys’ leagues and kicked our [behind],” he said. “She played flag football and was quarterback half the time. It was unreal. So her winning gold was not surprising, I’ll say that much. It was almost expected.”
Carolyn Doyle (Conway), who also played water polo at Newport Harbor and USC, said that Gilchrist is a role model for her daughters Hope, 4, and Hattie, 1. And Kally Lucas, another former star water polo player for the Sailors and Trojans, also seemed to enjoy the party.
“I think it’s awesome,” said Lucas, whose younger brother Zach was a classmate of Gilchrist’s (class of 2010) at Newport Harbor High. “It’s so fun to have a gold medalist in our community.”
The addition of surfing as an Olympic sport in 2020 gives Gilchrist another goal to strive for. For now, though, she may finally get some time to relax. Last week, she arrived home on Tuesday and went up to USC on Thursday, where she met with Trojans Athletic Director Lynn Swann. She took a picture with Swann, in which she wore Super Bowl rings and he wore her gold medal.
“This week, it will be more mellow,” said Gilchrist, who nevertheless was at the Angels baseball game on Tuesday night as teammate Courtney Mathewson threw out the first pitch.
Understandably, she doesn’t seem to mind all of the gold in her life lately.
