Olympic champs return home to Orange County
The loud chant began at the bottom of the stairs near a baggage pickup area at John Wayne Airport: “USA! USA! USA!”
The fan frenzy Tuesday morning for returning local Olympians was fitting for Orange County, which might as well be “Water Polo County,” considering it’s a hotbed of the sport that produced a gold medal for the United States at the just-completed Olympic Games in Brazil.
Newport Beach was well-represented on the championship women’s water polo team, with home-grown athletes Maddie Musselman, from the Port Streets in Corona del Mar, and Kaleigh Gilchrist, a beach girl who loves surfing as much as water polo. Team captain Maggie Steffens lives with Gilchrist and her family in Newport Beach.
Their flight from Houston also included members of the bronze medal-winning U.S. men’s volleyball team, including Coach John Speraw, former head man at UC Irvine, and David Smith, a former UCI player.
The players’ families and friends greeted their favorite athletes with flowers, posters and huge smiles.
Dan Klatt, an assistant coach for the U.S. women’s water polo team and head coach of the UCI women, was thrilled to reunite with his family, including his twin 4-month-old sons, Luke and Skyler. Klatt’s wife, Natalie, had been in Rio de Janeiro as well and was just as happy to have the family back together.
Klatt — as with other coaches, including Chris Oeding, a former Corona del Mar High School standout — did not receive a medal. But he expressed happiness for the athletes and reveled in the reception at the airport.
“The last time when we came home from London [after a gold-medal win in the 2012 Olympics], Courtney [Matthewson] and I were the only two from Orange County on the flight, so it was neat to have this many people on the flight,” Klatt said. “It was a great experience. I’m always reminded how great the U.S. is when you’re away, and to even have people chanting it when you walk back in is even better.”
Karen Musselman was excited to see her daughter receive such a grand welcome. Karen brought along her youngest daughter, Ella, to support Maddie.
Karen said she was overwhelmed while watching Maddie and her teammates receive the gold medal in Brazil.
“It was an incredible experience and one that I’m sure my entire family will cherish forever,” she said.
For Maddie, the party continued after leaving the airport. She was surprised when she got home to find neighbors and friends waiting. She posed for countless photos.
She and her teammates have been ambassadors for water polo and hope the U.S. team’s two straight Olympic gold medals will bring the sport more popularity.
“The tournament we had in Texas [earlier this year], we could see the kids there wanting to be a part of it,” Maddie said. “The sport is continuing to grow all over the U.S. I think it’s really cool to see this many people here to congratulate us.”
Maddie’s father, Jeff, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who is now a sports agent, said his daughter is to receive $25,000 for the gold-medal victory as part of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Operation Gold program. Though she is an incoming freshman at UCLA, she can receive the money as part of an agreement with the NCAA, he said.
Gilchrist, who played for USC, will be happy to have that money as she embarks on a journey as a surfer. Surfing, after all, will be part of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Gilchrist said she is headed to Costa Rica, Japan and Australia for surf competitions.
She said she’s thrilled to help bring attention to water polo.
“From our outcome, hopefully we can spread the sport even more, past Orange County and into other states,” she said. “It’s always been a goal to show water polo to other parts of the world. And I think we did a good job of that with how we played the past few weeks.”
