Page 56 - Great Elizabethans

Despite setbacks and injuries, the brilliant athlete Kelly Holmes went from driving trucks in the British Army to amazing success on the running track, eventually winning two Olympic gold medals.
SPORTY GIRL
At the start of the 1970s, in a little town called Pembury in Kent, a
17-year-old called Pam had a baby girl. Things were very tough to start with –
the baby’s father, a mechanic, left before little Kelly was one. Pam’s parents suggested
she should have Kelly adopted, but Pam loved her daughter and refused to give her up. When Kelly was four, Pam married a painter called Mick Norris, who became Kelly’s father – and, after Pam and Mick had two baby boys, their family was complete.
Kelly loved her brothers, treating them like dolls, and they followed her everywhere, wanting
to do everything she did. A rough-and-tumble girl, she liked playing with her friends at school, but she didn’t work too hard at her lessons – in fact, she was known for mucking about! She was always brilliant at sports, though, and was games captain at her primary school. When she was 12, she joined Tonbridge Athletics Club. Soon, she won the English Schools 1,500-metre race at both junior and senior levels, encouraged by a PE teacher who believed she could succeed in anything. At
14, Kelly wanted to train to be an Olympic champion, but coaching cost a lot of
money and Kelly wasn’t able to pay for it. So when she was 18, she joined
the British Army.
Kelly had other jobs as a teenager. She helped nurse people with disabilities – and also worked as an assistant in a sweet shop!
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