Kaleigh Gilchrist

Kaleigh Gilchrist (born May 16, 1992) is an American dual sport athlete in surfing and water polo. She competed on the gold medal-winning US Women's Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, contributing 6 goals. She also won water polo team gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and is in the water polo squad for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life
Gilchrist was born in Newport Beach, California, in 1992. Her father, Sandy Gilchrist was a former swimmer who represented Canada at the 1964 Summer Olympics and the 1968 Summer Olympics, and her aunt and uncle were also Olympic swimmers.

In high school, at Newport Harbor High from 2006-2010, she was part of the CIF winning water polo team during the 2008 season. She also represented the US Surf Team at 5 ISA World Championships. She won back-to-back Surfing America titles in 2009 and 2010, and was crowned as the best 18 and under female in America. She won another title as the NSSA high school champion. In 2010, she was the Orange County Register athlete of the year.

Gilchrist attended the University of Southern California majoring in Communication and minoring in Occupational Science. Gilchrist co-captained the 2013 NCAA Championship team. She also won a national title for USC at the NSSA collegiate championships. She was part of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Sporting career
After completing college, Gilchrist joined the US national water polo team in 2014, and subsequently competed for the US national team in the 2016 and 2020 summer Olympic games.

On July 27, 2019 Gilchrist suffered a serious laceration on her leg after a balcony collapse at a nightclub in Gwangju, South Korea.

In May 2024, Gilchrist was announced as one of the members of the Team USA water polo squad for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris.