UofL’s Kelsi Worrell punches ticket to Olympics

Just so bubbly, outgoing, and approachable.  An exceptionally talented athlete.

Humble and hungry as well — a prototype for University of Louisville athletes, as far as Tom Jurich is concerned.

That’s Kelsi Worrell, who will be representing UofL on the United States swimming and diving team in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August.

Kelsi stamped her ticket with a first place finish in the women’s 100-meter butterfly event on Monday in the U.S. team trials at Omaha. Right behind her in second place was Dana Vollmer who won the gold medal in the event during the 2012 Olympics.

Worrell was clocked at 56.48 seconds – the second-fastest time in the world this year.

A four-time NCAA individual champion, Worrell will be just the second U.S. Olympian ever from U of L, following Angel McCoughtry, a women’s basketball player.

Creative, too.

Remember this video of members of the UofL women’s swim team simulating rowers on a moving sidewalk at the Durham, N.C., airport?

Then they simulated rowers in a shell, sitting on the sidewalk and each pulling on an invisible oar as they moved along the sidewalk. And finally, they lay on the moving sidewalk and pretended to swim.

Worrell was the videographer, uploading the video to her Facebook account. As of today, the video had been viewed 10,181,055 times. A website in Wales shared it and has had over 22 million additional views.

She’s got a golden touch, Kelsi does.