Larry Jamill Kelly (born October 25, 1977) is an American freestyle wrestler. He represented the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games where he earned a silver medal in men's freestyle wrestling at 66 kg. Kelly is currently a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wrestling coaching staff, as well as being the head coach for the Tar Heel Wrestling Club RTC in Chapel Hill.
Although he never won a high school state title or a college national title, Kelly won the 2004 USA Nationals and US Olympic trials at 66 kg (145.5 lbs) to represent the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics. After winning both pool matches by a 3-0 score, he defeated eventual bronze medalist Makhach Murtazaliev of Russia in the semifinal, 3-1. In the gold medal match, Kelly faced UkrainianElbrus Tedeyev. Tedeyev would win the gold by a 3-1 score, with Kelly finishing as an Olympic silver medalist.
Coaching career
Up until August 2010 he was the head coach of Dallas Dynamite Wrestling Club in Dallas, Texas. In 2015, he became a guest wrestling coach for Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez, all from the American Kickboxing Academy.[2]
Kelly has coached at Cal Poly and NC State University, and was an Associate Head Wrestling Coach at Stanford University. Kelly coached at Arizona State University from May 2018 until March 2020.[3][4] In October 2020, Kelly was named as an assistant coach at UNC-Chapel Hill.[5]
In 2021, Kelly was honored with the Lifetime Service to Wrestling award by the California chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.[6]
