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Tenley Albright - Retired From Competitive Figure Skating

In January 1957, Albright retired from competitive figure skating. Although she had an offer to join the Ice Capades, the leading professional ice show of the day that many figure skaters of her stature joined when they retired, she continued with her education instead. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1957 and then entered Harvard Medical School. Albright was never paid to skate.

Years after her victory, Albright's importance as a figure skater remained. Ten years later, Barbara La Fontaine remembered in Sports Illustrated, "Tenley remains in the minds of many people our most accomplished and impressive champion. A well-bred young lady, she was nevertheless, a real competitor, as steely as she was gracious. Her style was distinguished, a technical proficiency rounded by a dancer's training and sensitivity and marked by taste and intellect."

Awards and Accomplishments

1949 Won Ladies Novice Championship
1950 Won Ladies Junior Championship
1951 Won Eastern Senior Ladies Championship; finished second at the U.S. Championship
1952 Won silver medal at Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway
1952, 1956 Won U.S. Championship
1952-56 Won U.S. women's singles title
1953, 1955 Won North American Championship
1953, 1955 Won World Championship
1954, 1956 Placed second at World Championship
1956 Won gold medal at Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy
1974 Inducted into the Ice Skating Hall of Fame
1975 Received honorary degree of science from Russell Sage College
1976 Inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame; awarded Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement
1983 Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame
1988 Inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame
1999 Inducted into the Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame

Where Is She Now?

Albright completed her medical training at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1961. While she still skated for her own enjoyment, her focus for many years was on her surgical career. She began by joining her father's practice and was also a general surgeon at Boston's Deaconess Hospital. Albright's skating career was definitely linked to her medical career. She told Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times, "When I was competing, we were outdoors. So despite all my preparation, I never knew whether I would be skating in a snowstorm or whether it would be raining or windy. I've learned to expect the unexpected. You don't always know what you'll find when you open a patient, and you have to be prepared."

Later in her medical career, Albright had a solo practice, in affiliation with New England Baptist Hospital. She also developed an interest in research, working at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Whitehead Institute studying how to prevent and detect diseases early in their progression, researching drug delivery systems, and fundraising for human-genome research. She also founded Sports Medicine Resource in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Sports medicine was not her only link to skating. She skated for charity performances like the United States Figure Skating Memorial Fund, and taught underprivileged children how to skate. In 1976, she was the first woman named to the U.S. Olympic Committee and served as chief physician for the U.S. Winter Olympic team. Albright also served on the International Olympic Committee.

Albright married Tudor Gardiner in 1962, and had three daughters: Lilla, Elin, and Elee Emma. She divorced, and later married Gerald Blakeley, her second husband.

User Comments Add a comment…

about 1 year ago

Tenley Albright, i think you are an amazing woman in the face of woman figure skating. congratulations on all of your wins.