Crowd gathers to cheer on Kelsey Campbell in Games

You can join a party to cheer on Milwaukie High School grad Kelsey Campbell in the London Olympics women’s freestyle wrestling competition at Peninsula Park Community Center and Pool, 700 N. Rosa Parks Way, on Thursday, Aug. 9, starting at 12:40 p.m.

Her former coach and teammates will be there to cheer her on and to tell stories about her remarkable rise from novice to Olympian.

Campbell, a 2003 graduate of MHS, did herself and her community proud by earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team.

No U.S. woman has won an Olympic medal in wrestling, so Campbell hopes to be the first.

Competing at the Olympic Trials in Iowa City, Campbell upset the top seed, three-time U.S. Open champion Helen Maroulis, in the 55-kilogram women’s championship finals. Campbell won the first two matches of the best-of-three series.

“She was never a success at Peninsula Wrestling Club, per se,” said her former coach Roy Pittman. “But she never, ever, gave up. Kelsey just kept coming back, kept coming back. She motivated herself from within, pushed herself to succeed, and now we hope to see that success at an Olympic level.”

After taking community college classes, she went on to Arizona State University and wrestled with ASU’s club program as the first-ever female wrestler in the history of the university.