Back Where He Belongs Decades after his Olympic dream was crushed, Lee Kemp shares a message of resilience BY JANE BURNS | PHOTO BY JIM NEWBERRY
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ee Kemp (BBA ’79, MBA ’83) has a message for anyone who will listen. And though he made his name in sports, the former world champion wrestler’s message goes far beyond that. It’s about resilience. It’s about dealing with disappointment. It’s about changing course and moving on. It’s about having a Plan B, a Plan C, a Plan D, and then maybe finding a way back to Plan A. Kemp was an Olympian, an Olympian who didn’t get to go to the Olympics. Favored to win a gold medal in 1980, Kemp instead stayed home with 465 other athletes when the U.S. boycotted the Moscow Games. It’s a situation familiar to this year’s Olympians, who have to wait until 2021 after the Games were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Adversity hits us all, just like the rain falls on us all,” says Kemp. “Sometimes we cause our own pain, but sometimes we’re innocent bystanders who just get zapped.” Not only is Kemp the best to ever wear a Badgers’ wrestling uniform, he’s one of the best ever in the nation. Fewer people recognize his greatness as time goes on because of that boycott, the missed gold medal, and the shape Kemp’s post-athletic career
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