Keelys’ Camp: Women in Sport Facilitates Business Success
By Brittney Ziebell
Of the women who hold C-Suite positions in business, 94% have a background in sport. There is an indisputable correlation between athleticism and business success. Attributes such as self-discipline, confidence and self-efficacy are born in sport and carried throughout life. But by age 17 more than half of girls — 51% — will have quit sports. These are statistics that Keely Kelleher, founder and director of Keely’s Camp, shared with me immediately as we sat down for dinner on a spring evening in Jackson.
Kelleher is a retired World Cup Alpine ski racer who specialized in super-G and downhill, the fastest disciplines in the sport, oftentimes reaching speeds exceeding 80 mph. But when I sat down with Keely and asked her about her story, she doesn’t share anything about how she was ranked 38th in the world in super-G, or about how she was the 2010 super-G national champion after overcoming seven surgeries and being sidelined for three years during recovery. Rather than sharing a story about her comeback from injury and the accomplishments of her time as a World Cup racer, Kelleher focused on the fact that she was not coached by a female until she was 19 years old and approaching the pinnacle of her competitive career.
When Kelleher was assigned to her first female coach, she experienced a similar “Tough love, if you can’t keep up, you’re left behind” treatment that was exuded by the rest of the male-dominant coaching fleet at the time.
“Although I was building my mental fortitude, I didn’t realize how badly I needed someone to support me as a female athlete,” she said.
Kelleher continued to dedicate herself to the sport by building her strength and refining her technique, but she lacked the ability to see herself in role models that surrounded her.
“I had some incredible male coaches throughout my career, but there are moments when you need someone to relate to on a deeper level,” she said
We discussed how women coaching like men is not an empowering, modern-day tactic for girls.
“Female athletes can be tough, but they also need space to be their authentic female selves,” she said.
That is why, six years later at the age of 25, Kelleher founded Keely’s Camp, an all-women-led business for ski racing, backcountry skiing, mountain biking and kayaking, with a focus on empowering young girls ages 8 to 18 and bolstering female ski coaches ages 18 and up.
Since Keely’s Camp was founded in 2011 it has grown to host more than 400 campers a year and employ 30 female coaches, and its most popular camps have a 35-person waitlist. Camp locations have expanded nationally to Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming, and internationally to New Zealand, Chile and Iceland. Campers learn self-discipline, grit and adaptability, and develop a “get up and try again” attitude.
The all-female coaching staff pushes one another and practices stepping into leadership roles. Kristin Waddle and Leanne Smith, for example, retired NCAA Division I ski racer and two-time Alpine ski Olympian, respectively, have coached at Keely’s Camp since its infancy.
Today they are the only two female Alpine program directors in the 67 certified ski clubs in the United States. The leadership skills practiced at camps gave them the space and the confidence they needed to step into larger roles in the industry.
Keely’s Camp also offers a Coach Internship Program, where women who were once young campers can coach the next generation, pay forward the skills and life lessons that they learned and develop their own professional leadership skills.
“They’re coaching with confidence and setting their own courses,” Kelleher said, “which is a big deal considering the first woman to ever set a World Cup Alpine ski course only took place five years ago, in 2018.”
As I sat with Kelleher and discussed ways her business is changing the culture of women in sport and business, she leaned forward.
“Without sports, I don’t think that I ever would have accomplished what I have,” she said. “Women in sport is a greater influence than we will ever realize. I’m so proud of what we have built.”
She is clearly passionate about this topic but spoke calmly and eloquently about small steps of tangible change happening at each camp. Her humility is striking. After we spent an hour together, she finally shared with me that she just returned from Alaska the day before, and that she skied and filmed some of the toughest, most intimidating ski lines of her life.
She quickly changed the topic, and her eyes lit up as she spoke proudly about her participation in Start-Up Success, a six-week foundational course for entrepreneurs hosted by Silicon Couloir, and about TEAMS — Teton Entrepreneurs And Mentor Services — a mentoring program offered by Silicon Couloir, which she recently joined. She told me that Start-Up Success is offering her the chance to revisit important fundamentals in running a business, and that her mentors have helped her to understand the needs of her audience and home in on a more refined marketing strategy for her camps.
That is Keely in a nutshell: someone consistently pushing herself to do better and to be better 12 years after retiring from World Cup ski racing and founding her business. She has a mindset of lifelong learning, which is an attribute that makes for a good athlete, business person and coach.
As I wrapped up my conversation with Kelleher, I asked her what can be done to create inclusive environments in sports and in business — environments where everyone has a seat at the table and equal opportunity to achieve greatness. She said that it all comes down to constant consideration and awareness. We must allow each other the space to hone skills, the space to speak up, the space to feel heard and occasionally the space to make mistakes, fall, get up and try again.
“This provides the tools and education to respond, advocate for yourself and to not settle for traditional gender roles,” she said.
A supportive, open-minded and patient team is a powerful force for change, Kelleher said.
To learn more about Keely’s Camp, visit KeelysCamp.com. To learn more about Start-Up Success, TEAMS and other programming and events that Silicon Couloir offers to entrepreneurs, visit SiliconCouloir.com.
Former U.S. Ski Team racer Keely Kelleher has expanded her camps nationally and internationally.