First Amputee Bodybuilder
Meet the 19-Year-Old Girl who is the First Amputee to Become a Professional Bodybuilder
Kelly Rose Warren is a girl who was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia. She had an affinity for dancing since she started walking. It came to her naturally. Kelly grew up with one aspiration: to become a professional ballerina. She spent her five weekdays dancing after school.
It was that same passion that led her into her life's greatest tragedy which ended up creating the warrior that we know her as today.
It was 2009 and Kelly was 9 years old when her mother took her to watch the Australian Ballet at the Opera House in Sydney. That's when her life was turned around and where her story began. On her way to the show, Kelly was hit by a bus that totally crushed her left foot, and after 2 days of the surgeons' attempts to save it, they told her parents that it will need an amputation.
After returning to her hometown of Brisbane, Kelly received a prosthetic leg, and as soon as she got it, she was in pursuit of her goal of performing in the 2009 end-of-year concert at school. She even ran the cross country the next year and made it to the nationals as a runner by the 7th grade. But by the 8th grade as she moved to a bigger private school, she sunk into a state of depression that wiped away that stubborn and persistent spirit. She started drinking excessively at a very young age. There were times when she was 14 when she would drink a whole bottle of vodka every night, even drinking during her work at McDonald's. Eventually, she was asked to leave her new school because of her attendance and behavior, and was later admitted to a drug and alcohol abuse recovery center.
By grade 9, her state of depression and the self-destructiveness that accompanied it had reached their peak. She was taken to a hospital twice after failed suicide attempts. After one last attempt during grade 10, Kelly finally realized that she had it in her to pick herself up from that dark place she was in and to get over her tragedy. She moved in with her grandfather, and started her path to rehabilitation; but not quite yet. She was still smoking a lot of weed and maintaining an unhealthy diet from which she gained a lot of weight. It wasn't until someone came into her life and encouraged her to take up a healthier life that she began to go to the gym twice a week. She still needed some work on her mindset, though, because she quickly became obsessed by losing weight that she had a sudden drop to underweight ranges. In less than 6 months, she had lost more than 25kgs.
But then Kelly began to educate herself about what she needed in order to build a truly healthy body. She was looking to make some gains, so she started adjusting her macros and working out more consistently. The transformation became apparent quite quickly, and people who saw the pictures she posted on social media were taking note and praising her effort.
Soon, with some hard work, she became the first amputee to be named as a professional bodybuilder in a division for the able-bodied. In the Sports Model Open Class 1, she got the title of world champion, and then she entered the iCompete Natural World Championship and scored the Sports Model Novice title.
Now 19 years old, she's currently studying a personal training course, and aspires to become both a personal trainer and a life coach. After all, who's better fit for such a job than someone with her story? We hear the phrase "never say never" a lot, but no everyday do we come across living proof of that phrase. Kelly Warren is that living proof.
References
Serrano, W. (2018, August 09). Kelly Lost Her Foot At 9 Years Old... Now She's Getting Ready For Her First Fitness Comp! Retrieved from https://www.fitazfkblog.com/home/2018/8/9/kelly-lost-her-leg-at-9-years-old-now-shes-getting-ready-for-her-first-fitness-comp
Laura House For Daily Mail Australia. (2019, March 09). Amputee overcomes severe depression to become a professional bodybuilder. Retrieved from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6745085/Amputee-overcomes-severe-depression-professional-bodybuilder.html