Kelly Wood (born 8 April 1981 in Dundee) is a Scottish curler who has represented her home country and Great Britain and Northern Ireland on an International and Olympic scale.
Wood made her curling debut at Letham Grange Ice Rink in 1999 competing in the World Junior Curling Championships. Playing as a second curler the team finished a respectable fifth position. She has competed in numerous European and World championships and has been skip of the curling team four times.
Scotland's curling dominance over the two other host nations of Great Britain secured its place at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Wood was shortlisted along with nine other female curlers to be considered for a place on the women's Olympic team and became successful to travel to Turin to defend Rhona Martin's Olympic gold that Team GB won in Salt Lake City in 2002. She joined Rhona Martin, Lynn Cameron, Jackie Lockhart and Debbie Knox. As in her other international games, Wood played second throughout the Olympic competition. However, despite beating U.S. 10-4 after only six ends, Team GB's Olympic hopes were shattered as Canada beat Denmark in a nail-biting match in the final end. A win over Canada by Denmark would have enabled Great Britain to go into a playoff to compete for the last semi-final position. When interviewed after the game Kelly conceded Team GB's loss was "gutting" but added "we have to take the positives out of this." Being only twenty-four years of age is likely to stand Kelly in good stead for entering future Winter Olympics.
Wood won her first medal at an international event at the 2007 World Women's Curling Championship. She skipped Scotland with team mates Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers, Lindsay Wood and Karen Addison to a bronze medal. Scotland won the bronze medal by losing in the semi-final to Denmark, skipped by Angelina Jensen.
While representing Scotland at the 2010 World Championships in Swift Current, Wood met the mayor, Jerrod Schafer, and a romance developed. She would later move to the town. She can no longer compete in her native Scotland, although she was invited to participate in the 2012 World Championships in Lethbridge, Alberta as Scotland's alternate.
Famous quotes containing the word wood:
“Instead of calling on some scholar, I paid many a visit to particular trees, of kinds which are rare in this neighborhood, standing far away in the middle of some pasture, or in the depths of a wood or swamp, or on a hilltop.... These were the shrines I visited both summer and winter.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)