HURLEY Kelley

Personal Information

Family Partner Casey Ness

Residence Anguilla

Occupation Athlete, Student

Languages English

Higher education Design - University of Notre Dame: United States

License number 04041988000

Club

Upcoming Events

Sport Specific Information

When and where did you begin this sport? She began fencing at age nine.

Why this sport? Her parents, who have both practised and coached fencing, introduced her to the sport.

Club / Team Alliance Fencing Academy: Houston, TX, USA

Name of coach Andrey Geva [club, national]; Robert Hurley [father, personal]

Handedness Left

General Interest

Awards and honours She won the University of Notre Dame Knute Rockne Student-Athlete Award in 2010. (hurleysisters.com, 20 Feb 2017)

Famous relatives Her younger sister Courtney has represented the United States of America in fencing. They won bronze together in team epee at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, and also competed at the 2016 and 2020 Games. Their father Robert has served as their coach. (SportsDeskOnline, 06 Apr 2022; nbcolympics.com, 24 Jul 2021; hurleysisters.com, 20 Feb 2017; teamusa.org, 27 May 2015)

Other information COMPETING IN PARIS
After the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, she said she would consider aiming for the 2024 Games in Paris. "I guess the takeaway [from the 2020 Games] is I'm still able to do this. I'm still able to keep up with everybody even though I'm a little older. And with age comes wisdom." She had intended to quit fencing after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in order to go to medical school, but after the disappointment of her early exit and seeing the presentation for the 2020 Games at the closing ceremony, she set her sights on competing in Tokyo. In 2017 she finished her master's degree in public health and began concentrating full-time on fencing. "I just began to really think that I'm not ready to quit yet. I did want to take a break, but I felt there was so much more out there." (expressnews.com, 27 Jul 2021; usafencing.com, 30 Mar 2021; houstonchronicle.com, 24 Mar 2020; washingtonpost.com, 20 April 2017; chron.com, 04 Apr 2017)

MEDICAL SCHOOL
She brought forward her studies at the Saint James School of Medicine in Anguilla to May 2020 following the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, initially learning online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I decided to start when I wasn't sure if the Olympics was happening. I didn't want to wait another year and then find out the Olympics had been cancelled. I'm not exactly a spring chicken and I would just be waiting around. I didn't go to the island specifically because I thought, 'Well maybe if they have a tournament, I can't just hop over to China or wherever real fast from this little island'. So thank goodness online is an option." She says adjusting back to education was challenging. "Having a completely, 100% athletic career with no school at all, it was really difficult in a lot of different ways just to turn my brain back on. I went from being super active and training to sitting down and not moving to studying, and studying, and studying. It was a rough first semester." (usafencing.com, 30 Mar 2021; usfencing.org, 27 Jul 2013; washingtonpost.com, 20 April 2017; chron.com, 04 Apr 2017)

FENCING SISTERS
She has a close relationship with younger sister Courtney, although it was not always that way growing up. "When I was maybe 15 or 16 and Courtney was 12 or 13, Courtney started to get good enough to beat me, and that was when tension sort of started. It was tough as a sister when your younger sister can finally beat you. But then, right around when I went to college, our competitiveness toward each other kind of stopped. And then once Courtney joined me in college, we actually became roommates, and I'd say that's when we started to get pretty close. Our competitive fire was no longer toward each other, it was more a team effort - Courtney and I versus everyone else. And I'd say since then, our relationship has been tighter than any other sibling relationship I've ever encountered." (cosmopolitan.com, 02 Jun 2016)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She gained a master's degree in public health from University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston in the United States of America. (Facebook profile, 01 Sep 2021; expressnews.com, 27 Jul 2021)