Kelley Hurley reacts during a match in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 on July 24, 2021 in Chiba, Japan.
Three athletes from different sports are currently using Team USA tuition grants to pursue medical training that could one day benefit others within the Olympic and Paralympic Movements.
Fencer Kelley Hurley, water polo player Jordan Raney and biathlete Joanne Reid are all pursuing medical studies with an eye toward helping others in the future.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee awards more than $800,000 in tuition grants annually. Eligible athletes can receive up to $4,500 in a calendar year. The grants can be used for traditional two- and four-year undergraduate or graduate degrees, industry specific certificates, professional development courses, job readiness training courses, and other educational courses that advance an athlete’s career.
Hurley, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist who competed in her fourth Olympics last summer in Tokyo, has wanted to be a doctor since she was a little girl. The 34-year-old from San Antonio is enrolled at Saint James School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, and she’s interested in preventive medicine.
“My father was a physician, and I always just wanted to make a difference,” Hurley told TeamUSA.org. “I’ve always had this thing in me that just wants to make things better for everybody else. So, that’s how I became interested in public health, to make things better for the masses.”
Raney and Reid echoed similar sentiments in their grant applications, with each offering their own unique perspective for how they’d like to contribute.
Hurley said she favors a holistic approach to medicine.
“I’m an athlete, and health obviously a big aspect of my entire life,” said Hurley, who sees societal problems that need to be addressed. “We sit for so long, and we eat terrible food sometimes, and sometimes life just gets away from us.”
It happened to Hurley when she first got to Saint James.
“I’m pretty good at multitasking,” she said. “But medical school definitely challenged that.”
The 2010 University of Notre Dame graduate found it difficult to squeeze workouts into her crowded academic schedule, especially after having been out of school for so long.
“It was a bit of an adjustment period to give my muscles a break and use my brain again,” she said. “I was just so overwhelmed mentally that it was very difficult to study all day and to also make myself get up and actually do a workout. It was very challenging.
“But then I hit my stride. I remembered how to study, and I remembered how to get more organized and be more efficient in my studies. And I am back to working out every day.”
The Olympic experience helped Hurley apply herself, she said.
“When I put my mind to something, I can do it,” Hurley said. “I will do it, and that’s how I became a four-time Olympian. I know I can dedicate myself.”
