Twenty years later, Nina Cutro-Kelly fulfills her Olympic dream - Times Union

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At first, Ravena High graduate Nina Cutro-Kelly figured it was probably about the mini-bar.

A USA Judo official wanted to speak July 2 with Cutro-Kelly, a top heavyweight judoka who now lives and trains in San Antonio. Cutro-Kelly wondered if there was a problem with the hotel bill from her stay in Budapest at a competition in June.

“It sounds a little silly, but on these trips we have these mini-bars,” she said. “The worst thing you can do is jostle the mini-bar. They think you stole whatever’s in there. … Maybe they thought I owed them a lot of money or something like that and they’d have to double-check I didn’t actually drink anything.”

On a conference call, Cutro-Kelly found out the news didn’t involve a past trip to Hungary but instead a future journey to Tokyo.

Cutro-Kelly, 36, is bound for her first Olympics. She was added to the squad and will become the United States’ oldest judo competitor in Olympic history.

She plans to leave Tuesday for Tokyo and will begin competition in the +78 kilograms (over 172 pounds) weight class July 29.

Cutro-Kelly took up judo when she was 8 years old and told the Times Union, “I’d really love to be in the Olympics” in a 2002 article. 

“Yeah, I kind of didn’t want it to be 20 years later,” she said. “It took 20 years to make it happen.”

She said her longevity is unusual among U.S. judo players because many don’t have her job flexibility. She works for a French company, teaching English to corporate professionals over the phone. Cutro-Kelly trained in France for eight years and earned a master’s there in teaching English as a second language.

Cutro-Kelly, who is 5-foot-9 and 220 pounds, also enjoys proving naysayers wrong.

“I was realizing that I was still performing better than a lot of people who were significantly younger than me and I wanted to do it because I could,” she said. “Also, a lot of times in the U.S., heavyweights get a lot of bad reputations because we don’t look like these ripped, eight-pack athletes in other divisions. It was kind of like, well, you know, you might have an eight-pack, but I made the Olympic team.”

One reason she didn’t make the Olympics sooner is because she was stuck in the wrong division, according to her personal coach, Jim Hrbek, also a Ravena graduate.

Kayla Harrison, another American heavyweight, won gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. She has since moved over to mixed martial arts.

“(Cutro-Kelly) had to be able to get past the Olympic champion to make the team, so that was an obstacle that nobody in the country, nobody else in the world had,” Hrbek said.

Cutro-Kelly said she wasn’t sure if she’d make it this year, either, since she sat just outside a top-18 world ranking needed to qualify. Then a couple of competitors from other countries withdrew, opening a spot for Cutro-Kelly.

“Yeah, I’m taking it in stride,” she said. “I mean, it was always really close, so it wasn’t as big as a shock.”

Her first reaction to the news was concern whether she'd be able to get the time off from work, according to Hrbek, who said Cutro-Kelly shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the Olympic experience.

“She doesn’t ruffle a lot,” he said. “She can meet someone in the bus terminal and meet the Pope and she’s pretty much the same.”

Cutro-Kelly has been training with Hrbek since 1999 and followed him to San Antonio in 2014.

Cutro-Kelly said she wants to see the Olympic draw before speculating how well she might do in Tokyo. Hrbek said although Cutro-Kelly won’t be a top-eight seed, the Olympics are known for upsets.

“She doesn’t think she’s fast, but she’s very fast,” Hrbek said. “She’s incredibly strong. Like we’re talking man-strong. I weigh 250 and she can pick me up off the ground.”

She was a “wild kid” who first learned the sport under her father, John, a brown belt. 

"It's been a long journey," John Cutro said. "She surpassed anything I could do in judo. i'm so proud of the fact she has been able to overcome so many barriers to get where she is today."

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Twenty years later, Nina Cutro-Kelly fulfills her Olympic dream - Times Union
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