Katie Hansen Goes For Gold

By CLARK FAHRENTHOLD

Why do we play sports?

If you polled enough people, you could probably come up with over a thousand various reasons for why folks continue to play games.

But perhaps most of all, you’d hear that it’s someone’s  "love" or "passion" for their respective game that keeps them coming back for more.

It’s that same love and passion that brought 03' Coronado High School graduate Katie Hansen back to the pool to help the San Diego Shores take home gold in the 2023 Fina World Women's Master Water Polo Championships.

"It was one of the opportunities where I just had to go because it may not be something I ever get to do again,” noted Hansen. "I think a lot of things in my life so far have been fairly challenging, but it's another one of those things where I wanted to do it, and I made it happen."

Like so many others in town, Hansen's water polo career got its start in junior high under then-head coach Randy Burgess. A staple member of the varsity team as an Islander, Hansen led her teams in scoring each year and was named Union-Tribune’s Most Valuable Player. Her final season in the green and white cap would help the Islanders win a CIF title, thanks to her double-OT goal vs. Bishop's High School.

"It's impossible to underestimate the impact that the Coronado water polo community had on not just my water polo career but my life,” Hansen said. "I'm a pediatric cardiologist as well as an exercise cardiologist, and my mission in this job is to help kids with congenital heart disease exercise safely, build a positive relationship with exercise, and get the opportunity to develop physical capabilities as well as the mental skills that come with participating in sports and exercise. That is all a direct result of the teammates, coaches, and the sport that has been so impactful in my life."

Following her career as an Islander, Hansen would earn a scholarship to play water polo at Stanford University.  Hansen would continue to shine, earning all-American honors as a sophomore, junior, and senior. During the summer, she would play with the national team. Following her graduation and storied career as a Cardinal, Hansen would attend Medical School at the University of California San Diego before returning to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford Pediatrics for her residency.

While she pursued her MD, Hansen continued to play and kept in touch with her passion for water polo. She played for the New York Athletic Club for Nearly a decade, all through her years of working, research, clinic work, pre-medical, and med-school.

"I was lucky enough to be able to take these weekends and play water polo with my best friends, and it was some of the best weekends of my life," said Hansen.

But when COVID hit in 2020, and having two kids, Hansen placed the sport she loved on the shelf. That was until she got a call from a group of former friends who were putting together a team to go play at the 23' Fina World Women's Masters Water Polo Championships.

While at first hesitant, Hansen decided the opportunity was too great to pass up. "It was gonna be a tall order because of my medical training and having two kids, but after talking with my husband, he just told me, ‘You have to go, and we'll figure it out,’” laughed Hansen. "It's the coolest opportunity to play alongside women who I had grown up with, around, or played against for 25 years, and I could not pass it up."

After a few months of training, Hansen and the rest of the San Diego Shores team would travel to Kyushu, Japan. Once there, it would take a few games for things to click, but the team would quickly begin playing at the height of their game.

"It was sorta like getting back on the bike a little bit; we were having a lotta fun the first few games but knew we were not playing our best," noted Hansen. "But it was really fun to see how much better we got together every day, and we really gelled as a team."

The Shores’ biggest foes of the tournament would be a team from Italy, who would get the better of them in their first bout. But in their rematch in the championship, Hansen in the Shores would come out on top and bring the Championship title back home with them.

"We never lost our excitement to win, and we were a super gutsy and gritty group who wouldn't take no for an answer. So winning that game in the finals was super fun,” said Hansen. "It felt like an NCAA championship-type game; even though we were all in our mid-30s and in a totally different phase of life, we did so much to prepare. We left it all out on the pool."

For some, winning gold like this may feel like an excellent place to call it. But for Hansen, she views her and the team's victory as another door opening and hopes that other women see that you can still go out and compete in the sports you love, no matter your age.

"It's tough to do it all, but we can be bad-ass athletes and have long careers and have kids and have really full lives, and it can be tough to do it all,” said Hansen. "But what we all really anchor on was showing girls that this is a sport that you can play into adulthood and later in life when you have a lot of other things going on that the sport you love doesn't have to stop. If you love the game, there will always be opportunities to play.”

For the former-Islander Hansen, her water polo career is a gift that keeps on giving, and her triumph at the Fina World Women's Masters Water Polo Championships serves not only as another athletic milestone but as an example of what can become when we follow our passions. ◆