I work at Stanford and this is incredibly sad. I didn't know Kelly other than I've surely waived across the road to her many times.
The velonews article talks about her perfectionism. When she reached a place where she wasn't able to succeed, she piled on more pressure instead of pulling anything back. That same crazy drive and will to succeed that makes a world-class athlete can be the snowflake that starts the avalanche.
I was very depressed in college and ultimately was hospitalized and ended up dropping out due to it. Now, 20 years later and working with Stanford kids every day, I do my best to impart to them that it's OK to fail sometimes. So many of the kids that make it (to) here have basically batted 1.000 in their lives thus far. I hire ~60 kids and having to tell the other 100 that they didn't get the position they wanted always brings out 3-4-5 kids who have literally never heard it before and don't handle it well.
We as a university don't do anyone any favors. In the effort to keep suicide out of the zeitgeist (google Gunn Highschool Suicides...) whisper about it. I wonder if that doesn't do more harm than good, given that there are kids bunkered into their dorm rooms thinking they are the only people struggling.
It just sucks. It's heartbreaking every time. Stanford has had 3 suicides so far this year. May/June is always a tense period, too.