Somerset native Jenny Hansen will receive the ultimate athletic honor at the University of Kentucky this Friday.
Hansen will be the first Wildcat gymnast to have her leotard retired during an event Friday when Kentucky hosts the University of Arkansas in a dual meet. This will be done during the Wildcats' 40th anniversary celebration. Hansen's retired jersey will hang in historic Rupp Arena along with other honored Kentucky athletes. Jersey retirement is considered the highest athletic honor possible at Kentucky.
Hansen was one of the most recognizable female collegiate athletes nationally in the 1990s. Even at a basketball mecca like Kentucky, Coach Rick Pitino's basketball teams had to share billing with Hansen as the biggest sports news during their winter seasons.
Hansen is the most decorated gymnast in NCAA history, winning eight NCAA Division 1 gymnastics championships titles. She is the first and only woman to win three straight NCAA all-around titles (1993, 94, 95), and also captured NCAA titles on the balance beam (1994, 1995), vault (1994, 1995) and floor exercise (1995). She is a 13-time All-American, one of the highest totals ever for any female collegiate athlete.
Hansen was a three-time Honda Broderick gymnastics award winner, and in 1994 she was the Honda Broderick Cup recipient as the top women's amateur athlete in the nation. In 1995, Hansen was named the Southeastern Conference Female Athlete of the Year. She set and continues to hold every individual gymnastics record in UK school history. In 1995 she was only the second female ever to win the Kentucky Sportsman of the Year award.
In 2006, the NCAA named Hansen its most outstanding gymnast over the past 25 years in NCAA championship competition. The honor was awarded in conjunction with the NCAA's celebration surrounding the 25th Anniversary of Women's Championships.
In 2006, Hansen was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame.
At the age of 37, Hansen made a gymnastics comeback, nearly qualifying to compete for the United States in the 2012 London Olympics.
The Hansens are an incredible gymnastics family. Jenny's older sister, Beth, was a four-time qualifier for the NCAA national championships for the University of Arizona.
Hansen continues to use her gymnastics skills, working as stuntwoman for numerous television shows in California, where she now resides. Among the shows she worked on was a show on ABC about gymnastics, “Make It or Break It.” She was a trainer for people trying to lose weight in NBC's “The Biggest Loser.” She did stunts on several episodes of “Raising Hope.”
Hansen is now making the step into movies. The movie “Chalk It Up” is expected to be released some time in 2015. Hansen will actually serve in two roles in the movie. She will have a credited role as an actress and she will also serve as the stunt double for the movie's main character, Maddy Curley.
Hansen had another acting job this week, acting in an upcoming national Miller Lite beer commercial.
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