Emma Kelley

Emma Kelley - Arkansas Razorback Gymnastics

Emma is currently a sophomore gymnast at the University of Arkansas. We asked Emma to share how the Lord is currently at work in her life and through the Razorback gymnastics team. In order to do that we have to turn back the clock a little bit.

Emma’s mother, Mary Lou Retton, was the all-around gold medalist in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, her oldest sister was an acrobatics and tumbling student-athlete at Baylor, and her next oldest sister was on the gymnastics team at LSU. Gymnastics is in the Kelley family DNA and Emma is no different. In 8th grade Emma attended a gymnastics camp in Baton Rouge, LA where she was offered a full ride to LSU. She committed right then and there.

The next year Emma injured herself while attempting a front-half on the beam and went through full ankle reconstruction surgery which sidelined her for almost 9 months. Upon returning to the floor she tore her UCL and broke two vertebrae in her back. Emma was devastated. She was asking: “Why can’t I stay healthy? Why would the Lord put me through this? How will this affect my future?”

One day during her senior year in high school her dad called her while she was out and told her LSU head coach D-D Breaux and then assistant coach Jay Clark were had showed up to their house unannounced and that she should come home as soon as possible. D-D and Jay told Emma that they would be rescinding their scholarship offer.

Emma had been committed to LSU for over 3 years only to have it taken away from her less than a year before she would be arriving on campus. The future she had envisioned for herself was gone, but Emma wasn’t ready to quit. She started campaigning for herself on social media, hoping, praying she would have the opportunity to continue her gymnastics career. Just as she was ready to give up, she received an invitation from Jordyn Wieber to visit Fayetteville. Emma went home with a scholarship offer from the University of Arkansas.

Emma has grown so much in her faith upon arriving in Fayetteville. She knows God has her here for a reason. She always participated in the gymnastics team huddle, started attending New Life Church, and is plugged into FCA. Over the summer she brought one of her teammates along with her to an FCA huddle where we talked about Jesus calling the first disciples. After the huddle her teammate broke down and confessed to Emma that she felt distant from the Lord, but that He was weighing heavy on her heart and was calling her back to Him. The two of them prayed together that the Lord would continue to captivate them and draw them nearer to Him.

Emma is doing all that she can to faithfully follow and be obedient to Jesus. She wants to live and grow in her faith alongside her teammates as well as her friends who aren’t student-athletes at the University of Arkansas. She has felt the Lord leading her to share her faith with her friends who don’t know the Lord or are distant from Him. She loves the community she has within the team. From day one everyone was welcoming and inviting and made their team a safe place to grow!