- NUMBER OF PENN STATERS QUALIFIED: 6
- NUMBER OF PENN STATERS IN ALL ROLES: 9
- NUMBER OF OLYMPIC ALTERNATES: 0
Olympic history throughout the 20th century was shaped by Cold War politics. 1980 marked a turning point for Penn State’s place in the Olympic movement, as a half-dozen Nittany Lions lost out on the chance to represent their country on the world’s biggest stage. Most would get the chance to compete four years later in Los Angeles, though the boycott of the Moscow Olympics prevented track star Greg Fredericks from getting his chance to battle for an Olympic medal.
In the end, only one Penn Stater played any role during the 1980 Olympics as Nittany Lions from the United States, Norway, and Canada were all sidelined by the decisions of their national Olympic committees to stay home.
Profile: Elizabeth Hanley
Over a long career at Penn State, Elizabeth Hanley showed an unwavering commitment to the Olympic ideal. A native of Maryland and graduate of the University of Maryland, Hanley joined the Penn State faculty in 1965. As a professor of exercise science, Hanley taught everything from dance and figure skating to the history of the modern Olympics over a versatile four-decade career in State College before her retirement as an associate professor of kinesiology in 2004.
Hanley also served as the Nittany Lions gymnastics coach from 1969 to 1972. After the passage of Title IX, Hanley also served as the chair of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women from 1973 to 1974. She also founded the International Dance Ensemble on campus in 1978, serving as the director until 1998.
Hanley’s involvement with the Olympics began in 1977 when she was elected to membership in the International Olympic Academy, the main educational and cultural institution of the IOC. As a member, Hanley served as a lecturer, social meeting director, and dance workshop coordinator at the Academy in Olympia, Greece on a dozen occasions between 1977 and 1996. Hanley served as an associate director of the 1988 Academy.
An outspoken critic of the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Hanley attended the games in the Soviet Union in an advisory role to the Liechtenstein Olympic Committee. She returned to the Olympics four years later as a representative of the IOC. Hanley received the honor of serving as a torch bearer at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, running a 15-kilometer stretch of the torch’s long journey from Olympia to Georgia. After her retirement from Penn State, Hanley served as vice president of the International Dance Council.
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During her four-decade tenure at Penn State as a faculty member and gymnastics coach, Hanley amassed 6 cubit feet of Olympic resources that are now housed at the university. Read more about the Elizabeth Hanley collection at the Special Collections Library.
SOURCES AND ADDITIONAL READING
- “Associate Professor Emerita of Kinesiology Elected to International Office,” Penn State News, November 23, 2005
- T.R. Deckman, “A Torch Lights Her Way: University Professor Prepares for Olympic Run,” Daily Collegian (State College, PA), March 21, 1996, 4.
- “Elizabeth A. Hanley,” International Society of Olympic Historians, https://isoh.org/staff-view/elizabeth-a-hanley-usa/.
- Bob Grove, “Hanley Helps Unite World Athletes,” Daily Collegian (State College, PA), January 29, 1980, 6.
- Elizabeth Hanley Olympic collection, Coll. 8828, Eberly Family Special Collections Library, Penn State University.
- “Penn State to Host Olympic Academy,” Tyrone (PA) Daily Herald, December 26, 1987, 6.
- Bernie Schoenburg, “Boycott Not Welcome to Olympics Teacher,” The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), June 21, 1980, A2.