Multi-Sport Athletes Kaleigh Gilchrist and Keenan Lineback Can Do It All
Kaleigh Gilchrist—Water Polo Gold Medalist and Champion Surfer
A dual-sport athlete in surfing and water polo from Newport Beach, California, Kaleigh 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.
Competing on the gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Olympic Team, Gilchrist scored six goals at the 2016 Olympics and will soon be representing the US again at the 2024 Olympics.
At Newport Harbor High School, she was part of the CIF-winning water polo team during the 2008 season. Representing the U.S. Surf Team at five ISA World Championships, Gilchrist won back-to-back Surfing America titles in 2009 and 2010, crowning her the best eighteen-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.
Keenan Lineback—Champion Surfer and Swimmer
Gilchrist is not the only collegiate surfer at a top school to master two watersports. Introduced to swimming at four and surfing at eight in her small town of Conway, South Carolina, Keenan Lineback loved the two with equal intensity—and talent.
Straddling her devotion to both sports created inherent conflicts. She frequently found herself putting one sport on hold as she pursued her goals in the other.
“My junior year of high school, it was my second year on the USA national surf team, competing in Ecuador,” Lineback remembered. “I had to call the coach and tell him I couldn’t do the team anymore because I was missing weeks at a time training for swimming. Junior year is when colleges scout and evaluate high school athletes. They’re seeing how you’re doing at meets.”
Torn between her passion and her responsibilities, Lineback found the balance. After a discussion with her parents, she settled on pursuing swimming, accepting a scholarship offer from the University of San Diego. But there was another incentive to Lineback’s decision: surfing the California coast when she wasn’t swimming or studying.
The choice was apparently a good one. As a top swim competitor, she set college records in the 1650 Free, 1000 Free, and 800 Free Relay, and was awarded the USD Female Torero of the Year in 2014. And surfing took no backseat, whether surfing Trestles or Bali. Friends Kiana Fores, Colton Tisch, and José Manuel made good companions when she found her way to waves.