Lani Loken - Athletic Alumna 2004

To list all of Lani's accomplishments, achievements, honors and awards would fill a book the size of the Manhattan Telephone Directory, so consider this a brief "highlight film."

 

Lani Loken is a 1967 graduate of Ann Arbor High School. She was a 3-year cheerleader, (sophomore year JV, varsity for the final two) and captained the squad her senior year. During those same three years, she was a member of the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club, the Ann Arbor Hockettes and the Ann Arbor Swim Club, where she was a finalist in the National AAU Diving Championships three consecutive years.

 

Following high school, Lani attended the University of Michigan where she became a member of the U of M Women's Swim/Dive team while continuing her Figure Skating Club and Hockette activities. In 1968, Loken placed 5th in the 10-meter platform Olympic Diving trials.  During all of her high school and college years, Lani conducted cheerleading clinics throughout the nation with her dad, Newt Loken, U of M cheerleading and gymnastics coach.

 

A serious automobile accident in August, 1968,  disrupted Lani's whirlwind schedule, but only for a semester. In 1969 she became a member of U of M's first female cheerleading squad. That same year she resumed competitive diving, winning a gold medal in the 10-meter platform AAU championships, a silver in USA-Europe championships and numerous other awards in national and international competition.

Lani graduated from UM in 1971 with a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education and moved on to Arizona State University for graduate school. While earning her MA, she coached the ASU Women's Diving Team to a first place finish in the AIAW National Championships.

Fast forward to the present. Since 1979, Lani has been a physical education instructor at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She is head of the largest trampoline program in the nation, teaching aerial maneuvers for extreme sports, diving, cheerleading and martial arts to over 700 students per year. She also teaches or has taught springboard diving, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, racquetball, circus arts and walking fitness. Lani is currently Executive Director of the International Trampoline Industry Association and a member of the American Society for Testing and Materials Committee. She frequently serves as an expert witness in lawsuits involving trampoline, gymnastics, cheerleading and diving. She has been a major player in the U.S. Olympic movement including Coordinator of Athlete Services (Atlanta, 1996) and head of the U.S. delegation to the International Olympic Academy (Olympia, Greece, 1994).

 

Despite all these, and many other, achievements, Lani is most proud of her two sons: Todd and Tucker.