Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy

O'Kelly-Kennedy at a Red Dust Heelers game in 2019
Personal information
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1986-06-21) 21 June 1986 (age 38)
Sport
Sport	Wheelchair basketball
Disability class	4.0
Event	Women's team
College team	University of Illinois
Club	Stacks Goudkamp Bears Red Dust Heelers
Achievements and titles
National finals	University of Illinois 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08
Medal record Wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 2008 Beijing Women's wheelchair basketball

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy (born 21 June 1986) is an Australian 4.0 point wheelchair basketball player who plays forward-centre. She was part of the bronze medal-winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

Active in fund raising from an early age, O'Kelly-Kennedy took a group of children with missing limbs to the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, where she saw the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in action for the first time, and was inspired to take up wheelchair basketball. She entered the University of Illinois on a half-scholarship in 2005, and won three US National Championships with its Women's team.

By 2006, she was part of the Gliders team that finished fourth at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Amsterdam in 2006. She played professionally in Italy in 2010–11 with Sassari and with Elecom Roma in 2011–12. Although not selected for the Gliders team that played at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London, she won a bronze medal with Elecom Roma in the Men's European Championships that year and returned to the Gliders line up for the Osaka Cup in 2013 and for the 2013 Asian Qualifiers in Thailand for the World Championships to be held in Canada on 19–29 June 2014.