Kelly, a partially sighted athlete, will fly out on Wednesday to Vancouver, Canada to compete in the Alpine Skiing events with her guide Claire Robb at the Paralympic Winter Games which will run in the city from 12-21st March 2010.
Kelly, who has just returned from competition in Spain, is 1 of 7 athletes selected to represent ParalympicsGB at the Winter Games. A relative newcomer to the GB set up, Kelly is certain to be a huge asset to the team.
Kelly is currently funded under the Sport Northern Ireland Athlete Support Programme and supported by the Sports Institute for Northern Ireland.
Kelly is also supported by Disability Sports NI and speaking on behalf of the organisation is Elaine Reid, Kelly’s Performance Manager, “Everyone from DSNI is delighted that an athlete from Northern Ireland has been selected to compete in Vancouver, this will be the first time anyone local has made it onto the Winter Paralympic stage and we’re very excited to see Kelly perform.
ParalympicsGB is always a very competitive squad so for such a new athlete to break onto the team is already a great achievement”
Kelly said, “It’s a dream come true to be representing ParalympicsGB in Vancouver. The last few months have been very intense and I put everything I had into my training so I’m really pleased that all the hard work has paid off.
I’ve been training full time in preparation for the Winter Paralympics and I just couldn’t have done this without the financial backing of Sport NI who have been with me every step of the way and the support of SINI who have helped keep me fit and injury free. It’s been a real team effort and I hope I can do them all proud in March.”
