McKenna Lane Kelley (born April 15, 1997 in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

) is a retired American artistic gymnast.

Early life

McKenna Kelley was born on April 15, 1997 in Houston, Texas. She is the second of four children of Olympic gold medal gymnast

Mary Lou Retton Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) is an American retired gymnast. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silver medals and two bronze medals. Her performanc ...

and former

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

quarterback

Shannon Kelley Shannon Kelley is a former American football quarterback. He was the starting quarterback of the Texas Longhorns in the beginning of 1988. After graduating, he married Olympian and popular American gymnast Mary Lou Retton and after pursuing a ...

. Her older sister Shayla competed for the

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

Acrobatics and Tumbling team, her younger sister Skyla is a competitive cheerleader, and her younger sister Emma is set to join the University of Arkansas gymnastics team in 2020.

Career

Level 10

Kelley placed 5th in the all-around at the 2013 J.O. Nationals in the Junior D age division. In 2014, she was the

Nastia Liukin Cup The Nastia Liukin Cup (formerly the Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup from 2010–11) is an annual artistic gymnastics competition held in the United States and hosted by Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin. History In August 2009, USA Gymnastics announced ...

co-champion with Mackenzie Brannan. Kelley briefly trained as an elite gymnast and was invited to a few U.S. National team camps in 2015. She attended the USA Gymnastics training camp for the selection of the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

but did not make the team.

College

2016

Kelley joined the LSU Tigers gymnastics team in the 2016 season. She specialized in the

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, which is considered an apparatus. It is used by both male and female gymnasts. The gymnastics event performed on the floor is called floor exercise. The English abbreviation for t ...

, competing in 13 of 14 meets. At the SEC Championship, she posted a season-high score of 9.925 to help the Tigers win the team title; she also earned SEC All-Freshman honors. At the Super Six team finals of the 2016 NCAA Gymnastics Championship, she contributed a score of 9.9 to the Tigers' second-place finish.

2017

Kelley competed on floor exercise in all but two meets of the 2017 season, and also competed once on

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

for a score of 9.825. She earned a career-high floor exercise score of 9.975 against George Washington and Iowa. She posted a score of 9.95 on floor exercise at the SEC Championships, earning the event title and contributing to the Tigers' team title. At the Super Six team finals of the 2017 NCAA Gymnastics Championship, she contributed a score of 9.9 on the floor exercise to help the Tigers earn another second-place finish. She earned first team All-America honors on the floor exercise.

2018

Kelley did not compete in the 2018 season due to an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus ( ...

injury she suffered during a preseason training session.

2019

In addition to floor exercise, Kelley competed regularly on vault and three times on

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

during the 2019 season. She posted season-high scores of 9.925 on the vault against Missouri and 9.85 on the balance beam at Kentucky. On March 8, she earned her first career perfect 10 on the floor exercise against Oregon State, earning SEC Specialist of the Week honors. At the SEC Championships, she posted scores of 9.9 on the vault and the floor exercise to help the Tigers to another team title. In the team finals of the 2019 NCAA Gymnastics Championship, Kelley contributed scores of 9.8875 on the vault and 9.95 on the floor exercise to help earn another second-place team finish for the Tigers. She earned second team All-America honors on the floor exercise. Having missed an entire season due to injury, Kelley was eligible to take a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after ...

year but instead opted to retire and end her career after her senior season.

Personal life

McKenna lives in

Cedar Park, Texas Cedar Park is a city and a major suburb of Austin in the state of Texas, approximately to the north-west of the center of Austin. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the city's population was 77,595. History Before the arrival of European sett ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelley, McKenna 1997 births Level 10 gymnasts American female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Houston Gymnasts from Texas Living people LSU Tigers women's gymnasts NCAA gymnasts who have scored a perfect 10 Kelley family