Kiki Kelley GARY ABBOTT’S MATSIDE CHAT WITH...
Christina “Kiki” Kelley serves as USA Wrestling’s Greco-
Roman Team Leader for this Olympic four-year cycle, and has been working hard to help our Greco-Roman program. She has an amazing personal story of overcoming obstacles and having business success. Through her role as Team Leader, she also has built interna-
tional friendship through wrestling, especially at the 2014 Greco-Roman World Cup event in Tehran, Iran. USA Wrestler visited with Kelley shortly after her return from the World Wrestling Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
USA Wrestler: As a youth, how did you get involved in
sports, and why did they interest you? Kelley: I have a lot of energy. If that energy isn’t used, my
mom learned early on to challenge me. I always needed to get out a lot of energy, with the boys in the neighborhood playing football or basketball, anything active. I had one other girl in the entire town who matched my energy level, and the two of us would get up early, call each other and not stop the entire day. We packed in everything you could think of. As soon as I could, I got into sports. The first one was pee-wee softball where I placed first and third base. I liked any sports. I got my first medal in swimming in fourth grade. It wasn’t about medals. I loved being around other happy, young, excited people. It was an outlet. I might have been a real troublemaker if I had not kept busy.
USA Wrestler: What were your thoughts about wrestling
when you were younger? Kelley: My dad was a wrestler and my little brother was a wrestler. My brother was five years younger than me. My sister would have been the best wrestler. She could lift more than the farm boy in her class at a young age, and she was unbelievably quick and strong. She could beat both of us. I always beat my brother, he ended up being a really great wrestler. If it had been in our heads that my sister and I could be wrestlers, we would have done it. I followed it on my own. I never told people, but it was my private passion. I would never have thought to ask the coach to be on the team. He would have said no, it’s not a girl thing to do. I still played volleyball and basketball. I got the most determined award in basketball. None of them captured my interest as much as the warrior sports, boxing, karate. I wrestled my brother at home, but that was it.
USA Wrestler: You say wrestling is about obstacles. Your life
has featured many obstacles overcome. Tell us about your colon illness and how it almost cost you your life when you were finishing college? Kelley: Every challenge I have gotten through has been through sheer hard headedness. I am as stubborn as they come. I was a fighter, a scrapper. I remember having a choice. There is nothing like being stuck on a surgical floor for four months. I never got to know anybody. I had one night nurse, a day nurse and my mother, because I was quarantined. I would be shaking off the bed, so they had me in harnesses. I had tons of toradol shots. I could not sleep and when I did, it was night-
24 USA Wrestler
United States Greco-Roman Team Leader Christina “Kiki” Kelley overcame huge obstacles in her life to become hugely successful in the business world. She has now quickly become an important and influential figure in the world of international wrestling.
mares. How do you overcome that? You get to the core and essence of who you are. I asked my mom to have the hospital spiritual advisor talk to me. I knew I had a choice, to die or not to die. I had a blood fungus going through my heart and lungs. I couldn’t stand light. I was freezing cold and my quality of life was terrible. I was 22 years old. I talked to the hospital chaplain. I remember I was talking, and it was like something was flowing through me, rather than from me. I was saying God only gives you exactly what you can handle, and I needed to grow, and this would help me grow and be as strong as I could possibly be. I knew I needed to live.
like?
USA Wrestler: Tell us about your recovery and what that was Kelley: I had five teams of doctors assigned to me at the
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