Nicknamed "Liquid Nails", Kelly was born on 18 November 1991 in Baghdad, Iraq with a double arm and leg deficiency. Until the age of seven, he lived in at Baghdad's Mother Teresa Orphanage with his brother, Emmanuel who has a similar disability. Moira Kelly, on her own, met the brothers in 1998 and with her parents' help, brought them to Victoria, Australia in 2000 to get medical care for their disability. Kelly's treatment involved having parts of his legs removed that were deficient, and then being fitted with prosthesis. Moira adopted the brothers in 2000. In 2009, he became an Australian citizen. He attended Carey Baptist Grammar School in Kew, Melbourne. He was featured on the ABC's "Race to London". In 2013 he commenced university studying Bachelor of Arts at La Trobe University in Melbourne and dreams of working in the media as a sports commentator in the future. His brother has appeared on Australia's X-Factor. He has Bangladeshi-born twin sisters who were conjoined at birth. They attend his swimming meets to cheer for Kelly. Kelly played Australian rules football for a team in Kilmore, Victoria. When playing, he did not wear prosthetic arms. He played Australian Rules for his school's Year 7/8 team.
Swimming
Kelly is an S4, SB3, SM4 classified swimmer who has been based at the Melbourne Vicentre Swimming Club and coached by Brad Harris since 2009. , he has a scholarship with the Victorian Institute of Sport. He started swimming in 2008, after making a switch from Australian rules football. Kelly first represented Australia in 2009 at the Darwin, Northern Territory hosted Oceania Paralympic Championships. In 2009, he competed in the Arafura Games. He competed in the 2010 Australian National Championships, finishing first in the 100 metre breaststroke event in world record time. He repeated this feat in 2011 where he again set a world record. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in four events. His best result was fourth in the Men's 50m Breaststroke SB3. At the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, he competed in five events - Men's 50m Freestyle S4, Men's 150m Individual Medley SM4, Men's 50m Backstroke, Men's 50m Breaststroke SB3 and Men's 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay 20 Points. His best result was sixth in the Men's 50m Breaststroke SB3. Kelly competed in four events at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. He placed seventh in Men's 50m Breaststroke SB3 and sixth in Mixed 4 x 50m Freestyle Relay. He also competed in Men's 50m Backstroke S3 and Men's 150m Individual Medley SM4 but didn't progress to the finals. At the 2019 world Para Swimming Championships, London, he won the silver medal in the Men's 150m Individual Medley SM3.
