Gregory Kelley

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Gregory Eric Kelley (* 1944 ; † February 15, 1961 in Berg-Kampenhout , Belgium ) was an American figure skater who started in a single run .

Life

He was the youngest child of Dr. Vincent and Nathalie Kelley and grew up with his five siblings in Newton , Massachusetts . He began figure skating at the age of eight when he took his Catholic school class on an ice-skating course at the Skating Club of Boston and then joined the club to train at the famous Montgomery Wilson . By 1958 he won all the national championships in which he participated. His eldest sister Nathalie drove and accompanied him to all tournaments and stood by his side.

After becoming Junior Champion in 1959, Kelley moved to Colorado Springs to train with Edi Scholdan at the Broadmoor Club. Kelley hoped to follow in the footsteps of Hayes Alan Jenkins and David Jenkins and become Scholdan's third consecutive Olympic champion. Professionally, the excellent student wanted to succeed his father and become a doctor. In 1960 he took part in the senior championships for the first time and was fifth. So he qualified for the 1960 World Cup , where he finished ninth. In 1961 Kelley was national runner-up behind Bradley Lord .

As the reigning US runner-up, Kelley was together with his sister Nathalie and his trainer Edi Scholdan on board the Sabena flight 548 , which was to take them to the World Cup in Prague. The night flight should stop in Brussels . There, however, the pilot had to abort the landing approach and make another attempt to try another runway. The plane crashed on farmland in Berg-Kampenhout. All 72 passengers, the crew and a farmer on the ground were killed, including the entire 18-man US crew and their 16 relatives. The world championship in Prague was canceled.

In 2011, Kelley was inducted into the national Hall of Fame, as was the entire US team that had crashed at the time.

Results

Competition / year 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
World championships 9.
American championships 1st N. 2nd J 1st J 5. 2.
  • N = novices, J = juniors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usfigureskating.org
  2. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usfigureskating.org
  3. ↑ US Figure Skating Hall of Fame Members. In: worldskatingmuseum.org. World Figure Skating Museum & Hall of Fame, accessed January 17, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Kelley, Gregory
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kelley, Gregory Eric (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American figure skater
DATE OF BIRTH 1944
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1961
Place of death Berg-Kampenhout , Belgium