Barbadian gymnast Olivia “Storm” Kelly, the first Barbadian woman to compete at the Pan American Championships and to qualify and compete at the World Championships, opened her collegiate career at University of Missouri last Sunday with a freshman record in the beam.

The 18-year-old Bronx-born Kelly helped the No 11-ranked Tigers gymnastics team put together its best meet of the season to defeat No 6-ranked Kentucky by a 197.200-196.800 margin.

 Kelly made her career debut on bars and beam, scoring 9.900 in the ladder, becoming the first Tiger freshman to reach the threshold. She tallied a 9.825 on the bars.

Missouri tallied 49.350 on beam, its second best in 2025.

In total, the Tigers (6-2, 1-1 SEC) posted six individual scores of 9.900 or better en route to the best team total against the Wildcats (3-2, 1-1 SEC) in series history. Mizzou’s 197.200 is its highest score of the season thus far.

A two-time World Championships qualifier for Barbados, Kelly is a New York State Champion, New Jersey State Champion, and a USA Gymnastics Eastern National Champion. 

Earlier this year, Kelly competed as an exhibition at Denver Quad, notching a 9.725 on bars and 9.775 on beam. She was named to the prestigious preseason list of Most Anticipated Freshmen by CollegeGymNews.com on bars, beam, floor (honorable mention), and all-around.