Mahomet’s Kelly continues quest for Olympics at NU event
By Reid Hanley
Tribune staff reporter
Mary Kelly wants all the things most 23-year-old women want, but first she wants an Olympic wrestling gold medal.
The Mahomet, Ill., native is devoting her life to getting a chance to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games in China, so everything else will have to wait. Kelly, who will be competing Tuesday in the Chicago Cup, an international wrestling event at Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena, is living in Colorado Springs and trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
“It really is a big commitment, “said Kelly, who left college at Northern Michigan to concentrate on wrestling. “I’ve been going to college the past couple years and wrestling has been a part of that. This past year I realized we’re getting pretty close to the Olympics and I was spreading myself pretty thin between school and wrestling and other things in my life.
“I decided I needed to make a complete commitment to wrestling. So I moved out to Colorado Springs and I’m not doing anything but wrestling right now. I’ve learned about proper recovery, seeing a nutritionist, doing everything I possibly can to get ready for the next Olympics.”
Kelly comes from a wrestling family. Her father, Jerry, who coaches at MacMurray College, was a state champion at Richards High School and an All-American at Oklahoma State. Her uncle Billy was a three-time state champion at Richards and an NCAA champion at Iowa State.
Mary Kelly started wrestling as a tot and competed in high school at Mahomet-Seymour, where she won a boys regional championship as a senior.
Since moving to Colorado Springs, Kelly qualified for her first world championship team at 105.5 pounds.
She finished ninth in her first world championships and can see the improvement since she started concentrating on training.
Women’s wrestling is on the Olympic calendar for only the second time. There are just four weight classes compared with seven for men, who compete in freestyle and Greco-Roman styles. Kelly hopes competitions like the Chicago Cup will expose young females to the sport.
“I would just like to represent women’s wrestling and show younger females the sport; that they can accomplish a great deal, “she said. “And that this is a definite possibility for them.”
Kelly will be in one of two women’s exhibition matches, along with Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann of Iowa City. Buffalo Grove’s Lindsey Durlacher, who also trains at Colorado Springs, will wrestle in one of two men’s Greco-Roman exhibitions.
The U.S. freestyle team will take on the world champion freestyle team in the main portion of the competition. Six of the seven U.S. wrestlers, who finished third in the world championships, will compete, including world silver medalist Mike Zadick (132 pounds) of Iowa City and world bronze medalists Donny Pritzlaff (163) of Madison, Wis., and Tolly Thompson (264.5) of Cedar Falls, Iowa.
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