Kelsey Klatt is a member of the UC Irvine women’s water
polo team that finished fourth at the NCAA Championships last
spring. Kelsey, who is the sister of UCI women’s water polo
head coach Dan Klatt, traveled to London to support her brother who
is an assistant coach with USA women’s water polo team. Share
her experience in London here.
Kelsey's Photo Gallery
USA GETS THE GOLD! - August 11
The past couple of days have been unreal. As you all know, the
USA women's team beat Spain in the gold medal game, making history
by being the first ever women's water polo team to win in the
Olympics. Not only did they win, but the dominated! The score was
8-5. Maggie Steffens, a 19 year old, scored 5 of 8 goals in the
game. It was so inspiring to watch her and everyone on the team be
so composed and bring everything they had in order to win. I am
sure most of you guys watched the celebration on TV of them in the
water, getting their medals, and the playing of the National
Anthem. Their excitement and love for each other was pretty
obvious. Being on a close-knot team myself, I know how strong a
bond can be between teammates and I really enjoyed watching them be
so happy with one another in celebration of something so big. When
the National Anthem came on, I completely lost it. It is such an
emotional and unbelievable thing to witness. I also couldn't
control my tears when Dan looked up and waved at me and Natalie in
the stands. I am so happy for him! I really felt Skyler's presence,
as I do in most big moments of my life, and know that he is looking
down on Dan also just as proud as ever.
After the game, all the families and players had a private room in
a casino where we all got to celebrate together. It was so fun
because I got to know the players more than I did before and just
have tons of fun. It was exciting being in the presence of the gold
medalists. The medals are awesome and also really heavy!
The next day Natalie and I slept in very late. We didn't really do
much besides get ready for another night celebration that the
sponsors put on for the team and families. It was a super fancy
celebration and, again, I had such a fun time with the girls,
Natalie, and Dan.
This morning we were a little slow moving, but we had some things
we still needed to see in our last day in London. We got a cookie
at this AMAZING place for breakfast (breakfast of champs, I know)
and then headed to Buckingham Palace. We checked out the palace and
some of the statues around it and then strolled into Hyde Park.
Hyde Park is beautiful and it was fun sitting and chatting on the
grass. Dan met up with us in Hyde Park so we visited while soaking
up the sun on the grass and then headed to Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey was by far my favorite thing to see in London. We
were debating whether or not to pay the money to go inside or not
and I am so glad that we did. It’s such a historic and
beautiful church. It's where a lot of the Kings and Queens are
buried or where their tombs remain. Everything from the statues, to
the glass, to the floors, and the walls was so incredibly ornate.
It amazed me that everything in there was so old for how intricate
it all is. Of course I was also excited to be there because it's
where Will and Kate got married and I do just love them.
Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures inside Westminster
Abbey, so I can't show you all what I saw, but I am just going to
have to remember everything inside my head. After we were finished
there, we headed to the Team USA house to get dinner and we watched
the USA vs. Brazil Women's Volleyball gold medal game on the big
screens. USA came out strong in the first match but then lost in
four. It was a bummer, but I am still happy that they will receive
a silver. After hanging out a while, Natalie and I headed back to
our flat. We are all packed up and ready for our flight tomorrow
morning. I wish I had more time here. I loved this trip and it
seemed like it went by so quickly! I know that this was a trip of a
lifetime that most people never get to experience and I will
remember it and cherish the memories from it forever. I got to
travel to London England, see the U.S. Women's Water Polo team take
the gold medal in the 2012 Olympic games, and also spend some
really quality time with my future sister-in-law, Natalie. I loved
her before, but now I love her on a whole new level. She is such an
amazing and happy person and I couldn't be more excited to know
that she will be a part of my family forever. It's an exciting year
for her and Dan with the Olympics and their wedding coming up and I
want the best for them because they truly deserve the best. It is
experiences like these, the Olympics and the wedding, that you want
to share with people who really mean a lot to you and she really
does. I am so glad we got to spend this time together on this
amazing trip in support of Dan and Team USA. I am sad it’s
over, but these special memories will stay with me forever. Thank
you so much to my family that financially allowed me to do this. I
cannot thank you enough and I am excited to see some of you and
spend some time at home. See you soon.
TOURIST DAY - August 9
I apologize for not getting my blog up last night. We had a
touristy day and I was exhausted when I got back to the flat. We
woke up yesterday and got a coffee and a croissant at a quaint
breakfast place in Chelsea. We went to again pick up our tickets at
the Gore Hotel for men’s indoor volleyball which took place
last night. Picking up the tickets, we ran into Will Montgomery and
Jaime Crow. They are both former student athletes at UCI. We walked
and talked with them for a bit and made some plans to hang out
before going our separate ways. Natalie and I went to the USA house
which is located right next to Royal Albert Hall. The USA house has
lots of cool clothes to shop for and we did some serious damage
there buying things for ourselves and for our family at home. We
then went exploring around the area which included so many
fascinating and detailed buildings. There was Royal Albert Hall, a
Statue of Albert himself, and the Royal College of Music. The
buildings here are so old and have such a different look than the
ones in the states. When I see some really awesome looking building
here, I always think that it is a big deal or some sort of famous
building, but it turns out to just be a church, hotel, office, or
something normal. The are all so intricate and incredible!
We went back to our flat to change and take a little rest and
then headed to Earl's Court for the men's indoor volleyball game.
USA lost in three to Italy in their quarterfinal game knocking them
out of the medal rounds. It seemed like their wheels were just
spinning off and they couldn't pull it together after the initial
deficit. It was pretty heart breaking to see their faces after
losing the game. I can’t imagine what that feels like. Our
seats were very close to Will and Jaime's so we walked out of
Earl's Court together to get on the Tube. Will had tickets to beach
volley so Jaime decided to come with us to see Big Ben, Parliament,
and the London Eye, which are all very close in proximity.
The London Eye was very cool. It's essentially like an enormous,
slow moving ferris wheel that lifts you so high that you can pretty
much see everything in London. The duration of the ride was about
30 minutes. We had views of the beach volleyball stadium,
Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, Parliament, Big Ben, and The
London Bridge. Once again, all the buildings from this view look so
cool because they are so old and different looking than the ones in
the US. After we were done with the London Eye we took some
pictures and got back on the Tube to go to the USA house to get
some dinner. Jaime's place that she is staying is located right
next to the USA house so it was perfect because we got off at the
same spot for her to go home. Natalie and I got some dinner and
watched the men's polo game on the big screen. They also lost in
quarterfinals last night against Croatia. In the USA house the mood
was somber among the men’s volleyball team and the fans who
were watching the water polo game, but everyone perked up and
enjoyed watching the beach volleyball on the big screen. We were
all cheering and very happy for Misty and Kerri and Team USA.
We are so excited for the women's water polo game today. My
stomach jumps every time I think about it! I just know that they
are going to come out on fire and bring it home. I am prepared with
just about every article of clothing that is as red, white and blue
as you can get and ready to cheer and chant as loud as possible.
Keep them in your thoughts and prayers and support by watching them
either live at 12pm or on NBC! LET'S GO USA WWP. BRING HOME THE
GOLD!! Below are my pictures from yesterday
SEMIFINALS - CHECK! - August 7
USA won their semifinal game against Australia today in
overtime. The score was 11-9 and it was a hard-fought game. The
U.S. controlled the game the entire time by one or two points.
However, the score was 9-8 USA and there was one second left on the
game clock in the fourth quarter and Adam, the head coach, called a
time-out when the U.S. was not in possession of the ball; giving
the other team a 5-meter. A 5-meter is essentially a free shot at
the cage 5-meters away from the goal. Australia scored on this
opportunity making the score tied at 9-9 at the end of the fourth
quarter. Although the girls could have been bummed by this, they
certainly stepped up to the plate and did what they needed to do.
They went into overtime and finished the game 11-9. After the game,
Adam felt pretty bad about his mistake and costing the girls to go
into overtime. However, he set a great example for them. He
apologized for his mistake and focused on what was ahead of them
which is so important in sports. Dan said that the girls on the
team had Adam's back and wanted to support and defend their coach
just as he does for them when they, as players, make mistakes. I
thought it was such an incredible display of how strong a
player-coach relationship can be and the amount of care you have
for one another to want to defend and protect each other. Anyway,
it was a great game and I am so excited for team USA to be in the
finals for the gold medal game!
Natalie and I woke up this morning and went to the Natural
History Museum in South Kensington. We saw lot of cool things there
such as fossils, statues, rocks, gems, diamonds and we learned a
lot of things about the solar system, planets, volcanoes and
earthquakes. It was fun and interesting because I had forgotten a
lot of things about science that I had learned a long time ago.
After the museum, Natalie and I headed for the Olympic Park to
obtain ours and John Speraw's tickets. We ate and then went
to go meet Speraw outside of the water polo venue. I saw my friend
Will Montgomery, who is a volleyball player at UCI, outside of the
venue. He had scored some water polo tickets and it was really good
to see him. After the water polo game Natalie and I got to get some
pizza with Dan. When we were eating we saw Kobe Bryant and Aaron
Peirsol walk by which I was very excited about. Dan isn't as
excited as me about famous people. He had to tell me to calm down!
After dinner, Dan went to the Spain vs. Hungary game and Natalie
and I went shopping to buy some gear for the gold medal game. We
got hungry for some dessert so we went to the USA house for some
free ice cream and then back to our flat.
Tomorrow's plan is to wake up, get our volleyball tickets from
Speraw, go to Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and the London Eye and
then go to the men's indoor volleyball game vs. Italy. We are
feeling very determined to get some touristy things done since we
keep putting them off. I am looking forward to it.
VOLLEYBALL – August 6
Last night after writing my blog Natalie and I stayed awake
until 6 o’ clock in the morning. We were chatting and
couldn't fall asleep for anything! We had to be up by 8 a.m. to go
get tickets from the Gore Hotel in Chelsea for U.S. Men's
Volleyball. Therefore two hours of sleep to hold us over. Waking up
was terrible but we had to do it. We went for a walk to Gore Hotel
passing the Natural History Museum and a lot of cute shops. After
picking up the tickets, we did some shopping. Grandma B- I found a
bookstore:) We both felt extremely jet lagged and decided to head
back to the flat to shower and then go to the USA house. We ate
there and fell asleep on the huge bean bags where the big screen
TVs are. We missed the men’s polo game on TV because of our
nap! After we woke up, we decided to be productive and do some
touristy things. We went to and took pictures in front of the Tower
Bridge and the London Bridge which were fun to see. The Tower
Bridge is the one with the huge Olympic rings on it that a lot of
people in the U.S. see pictures of. It was time for dinner so we
headed for the P&G house again. I saw a lot of swimmers in the
building today. A lot of them had medals on. I also saw Shawn
Johnson again. My favorite people that we ran into were Jeff Powers
(#4 on men’s polo team) and Merrill Moses (Goalie #1.) We got
to visit with them and take some pictures. Jeff is like an older
brother to me and I was so excited that I got to see him in London.
We then went to the men's indoor volleyball game where Coach Speraw
hooked us up with ground zero tickets. The picture below of me and
Natalie is not zoomed. We were actually in the second row from the
court! He just told us he could most likely get us quarterfinal
tickets as well. The men’s team dominated making them the
winners of their bracket. After the game, we went to a cafe and had
some dessert and hot chocolate to wind down. Now, I am exhausted
and know I won’t have any trouble sleeping like I did last
night.
Kelsey
QUARTERFINAL SUCCESS – August 5
Today was another awesome day in London. Natalie and I woke up
around 12 p.m. (slept for 12 hours!) and it still felt like the
middle of the night when we woke up. We were famished, so we went
to the USA house to get some food. We were different people in this
time period; more like walking zombies than our usual selves. We
arrived there at around 3pm and pretty much made a B line for the
buffet. After eating we were back to our usual selves. We, again,
saw a lot of Olympic athletes in the building and also saw Shawn
Johnson on the way out in what's called the Borough's Market. We
had to go pick up our tickets from a lady who works at USA Water
Polo by 5pm, so we headed to the Olympic park to meet her. This was
a little stressful because we went to the wrong coffee shop and did
a little wild-goose chase to get to the tickets. Eventually, we
found them and were good to go. We ran into Genai Kerr (Olympian in
2004 and 2008 and UCI Alumni) and he directed us to the Olympic
Park entrance. We found out that we received an extra ticket and
were able to give it to John Speraw who is the former men’s
volleyball coach at UCI, the current assistant coach for the men's
indoor volleyball team, and Dan's roommate. After exploring the
Olympic Park for a bit, it was finally the moment we had been
waiting for-THE QUARTERFINAL GAME! The venue is unbelievable. This
is one of the only times water polo has had its own arena separate
from the swimming pool. The girls won against Italy 9-6 and played
an awesome game. After the game we got to visit with the team,
their families, coaches, and fans just outside the venue. After
visiting with everybody for a while, Dan took me and Natalie on a
walk around the park. He showed us some pretty cool things that we
probably wouldn't have seen if we were just wandering by ourselves.
We went down a path by a river in the park that had these water
falls that spelled out words (pictures will help explain.) We also
visited all the other venues such as track, field hockey, swimming
and the basketball arena. We just looked at the outside of them. We
can’t go in without a ticket to one of the events, but
hopefully that will be happening! We grabbed a bite to eat at a
Mexican food vender and then started to head back to the Tube.
However, Usain Bolt had just run a race at the track and floods of
people were also heading to the Tube. It was jam packed and there
was a huge line to get on the Tube so we decided to go to a coffee
shop and wait until the crowd died down. We had a nice chat and
coffee and it was nice to just relax and spend some time with Dan
After the crowd had dwindled; we made our way to the Tube and
hopped on it to get back to our flat. Now its 2:30am and,
unfortunately, I am not the least bit tired. We have to wake up
relatively early tomorrow to obtain men’s indoor volleyball
tickets that John Speraw hooked us up with so that should help us
get more used to this time schedule. I am looking forward to
exploring tomorrow, doing some shopping, and going to the men's
indoor volleyball game! Below are some pictures from this exciting
day. Enjoy :)
Kelsey
JUST TOUCHED DOWN IN LONDON TOWN – August
4
Today has been one long day. I have now been awake for 20 hours.
Although, I really don't even feel tired at all from all the
excitement! The flight to London was 10 hours long. I read the book
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven," watched a movie, and listened
to some jams. After arriving in London, Natalie and I picked up our
luggage and went to purchase an Oyster card that is used to get us
places using the Tube. The Tube is the metro system here in London.
We took the blue line called Picadilly to get to our flat where we
are staying with Tony Azavedo's wife, Sarah, Peter Hudnut's fiance,
Lacey, and some of their friends. Tony Azavedo is number 8 on the
men’s national water polo team and Peter Hudnut is number 3.
Our flat is in a prime location in South Kensington that is pretty
central to the Olympic venue and other touristy places we want to
visit. After hauling our slightly over-packed suitcases up 3
flights of stairs, we changed clothes, washed our faces and were
ready to explore. We went with Sarah and Lacey to register for the
USA House. The USA house is for American athletes and their
families to hang out, watch the games, drink, relax and eat.
EVERYTHING IS FREE! It is amazing. There are huge screen TV's
enormous couches/bean bags, endless buffet food and drinks. Also
there is a Salon where anyone can go for free to get their hair,
nails, and make up done. Men have what they call a "man cave" where
there are pool tables, darts, and video games. The atmosphere is
amazing. Everyone is just so prideful and cheering on every sport
that is being displayed amongst multiple TV's in the building.
It’s also cool because the Olympic athletes are just walking
around all around you; some of them fresh from competition. I saw
many of the athletes that I had seen on TV previous to getting
here. It was difficult not to freak out and act star struck but I
maintained my cool for the most part. Nobody wants to hassle them
in there because it’s supposed to be a peaceful place for
them to chill with family. Natalie and I hung out in the P&G
house for hours watching different sporting events on huge bean
bags. Our main thing we wanted to watch was the men's polo game of
course. Unfortunately they lost but are still in a good place where
they can advance towards getting a medal. It's really fun to watch
the men’s team play because I grew up with a number of them
being good friends with Dan. At the end of the night Dan came to
visit us at the P&G House along with Jen who’s the
women's national team manager and Chris who is does the video,
media and film for the USA girls. It was indescribable to be able
to visit with them and watch some of the track and field events on
the big screen. I also saw Kelsey Thornton and her mom and got to
visit with them too. Kelsey Thornton will be joining me at UCI next
year on the water polo team. Her brother is on the men's national
indoor volleyball team competing here in London. Hopefully Natalie
and I will be getting tickets to volleyball game on the 6th. After
we were done hanging out, Natalie, Dan, Chris, Jen and I walked to
the Tube and went our separate ways; Natalie and I to our flat in
South Kensington and Dan, Chis and Jen to the Olympic Village. The
girls play tomorrow at 7 p.m. vs. Italy. I am so excited to watch
them play. Now it’s time for much needed sleep.
Kelsey
