Kate Hansen:Mormon Olympian
Kate Elizabeth Hansen is an American Olympian who competed in the luge. She retired after placing 10th in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. She will be a television commentator for the 2022 Beijing Olympics for three sliding sports—luge, bobsled, and skeleton—as part of the Olympic Broadcast Services team.
"The Los Angeles Dodgers invited her to throw the first pitch in a baseball game in April 2014 — she did a little dancing again — and the crowd loved it. That’s how she got a job in fan engagement at Dodger Stadium. Then BYU called and she did promotions on the field for multiple sports with the Cougars during the school year. NBC was next to reach out, and now she’s at the Olympics again."[1]
Hansen competed in luge since 2003. In 2008 she became the youngest Junior World Champion at age fifteen. She has been on the National Team since 2007. She finished 16th in the women's singles event at a World Cup event in Calgary in November 2009. She won the USA Luge National Championship in October 2013 while having a broken foot. In January 2014, she became the first U.S. woman to win a World Cup race in 17 years.
Although she didn’t medal in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia, she gained worldwide attention for her enthusiastic warm-up dancing to her Beyoncé playlist. She started dancing to warm up when breaking her foot made it difficult to run. The Sochi Olympics was Hansen’s first Olympics and she accomplished her personal goal to finish in the top ten. When Beyoncé heard about Hansen’s warm-up routine, she sent Hansen a Facebook message.
She even set the record straight in a Team USA blog post after Sochi — it is OK for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to dance.[2]
Born on June 9, 1992, in Burbank, California, Hansen holds a degree in public relations and business from Brigham Young University and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and lives in California.
