Gillian Johnston (polo player)

Gillian Johnston is an American polo player and patron.

Gillian Johnston
OccupationPolo player
Parent(s)Summerfield Johnston Jr.
Gil Johnston
RelativesRobert Johnston (brother)
Katherine Johnston Tudor (sister)
Lavinia Johnston (sister)
Summerfield Johnston III (brother)

Early life

Gillian Johnston is the daughter of Summerfield Johnston Jr., a business executive who served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola Enterprises from 1991 to 2001,[1] and a polo player.[2] Her mother, Gil Johnston, is a British-born horsebreeder and steeplechaser.[3] Her paternal great-grandfather, James F. Johnston, founded the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the first Coca-Cola franchiser.[4][5]

She grew up at Bendabout farm in McDonald in Bradley County, Tennessee.[2] Her brother, Summerfield Johnston III, died from polo-related injuries in 2007.[2][6]

Polo

She reestablished the Bendabout Polo Club at her family farm in the 1990s.[7] She is the patron and captain of the Coca-Cola Polo Team.[5][6][8]

She first competed in the U.S. Open Polo Championship in 1999.[9] Four years later, in 2003, they won the championship at the Royal Palm Polo Club in Boca Raton, Florida alongside Adam Snow, Miguel Novillo Astrada and Tommy Biddle.[9] She and Sunny Hale are the only women to have won this championship.[10]

In 2013, she won the Ylvisaker Cup alongside Sugar Erskine, Julio Arellano and Tommy Collingwood against Marc Ganzi's Audi team.[11][12]

She serves as the Vice President of the Polo Training Foundation.[13]

References
  1. "Coca-Cola Enterprises: Cola-Cola History". Archived from the original on 2015-02-15. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
  2. Polo: Gillian Johnston, Bendabout win Ylvisaker Cup match, The Palm Beach Post, February 6, 2011
  3. Nicole Lever, Gillian Johnston's Passion For Horses Has Never Dwindled, The Chronicle of the Horse, January 26, 2005
  4. Local families have Coke connection, Chattanooga Free Press, February 26, 2010
  5. Bob Sherwood, James Packer packs up in England after rain-sodden season, Financial Times, June 15, 2013
  6. Alex Webbe, Polo's family feud, Boca Raton News, February 18, 2001
  7. Horace A. Laffaye, The Polo Encyclopedia, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 195
  8. Horace A. Laffaye, The Polo Encyclopedia, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2004, p. 76
  9. Horace A. Laffaye, Polo in the United States: A History, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2011, p. 223
  10. Geraldine Fabrikant, On Horseback, Mallet in Hand, Breaking Barriers for Women, The New York Times, December 10, 2013
  11. Coca-Cola wins Ylvisaker Cup, Polo Times, 26 February 2013
  12. Sharon Robb, Horse dies after Coca-Cola’s bittersweet polo victory, Palm Beach Post, February 24, 2013
  13. Polo Training Foundation: Our Board
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