Nancy Jane RAMEY

At the time of her Olympic medal, Nancy Ramey was a 16-year-old student at Mercer Island High School in Washington. She was disappointed at the Melbourne Olympics when she was denied her chance to compete against the great Dutch butterfly swimmers, when the Netherlands boycotted the 1956 Olympics in protest of Russia's invasion of Hungary. In 1958 she set world records for the 100 m butterfly (twice) and for the 200 m fly (once) and won six national titles (five U.S., one Canadian). At the 1959 Pan American Games she won silver in the 100 m butterfly. Nancy Ramey later graduated from the University of Washington and then earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin. She put her degrees to use in the 70s as an assistant professor of religious studies at Stanford. As Mrs. Jim Lethcoe, she and her husband later organized and led Alaskan wilderness safaris.