‘My second home.’ Why UK icon Jenny Hansen brought the bling back to Lexington
When Jen Hansen Hecht — in these parts, she is remembered as Jenny Hansen — decided to attend this past weekend’s gymnastics NCAA Lexington Regional at the University of Kentucky, she did something she rarely does.
Prior to departing her Colorado home, Hansen Hecht rummaged through her “ring box” to find her NCAA all-around national championship rings.
For her return to Memorial Coliseum, where her retired leotard hangs in the rafters, Hansen Hecht wore one of her NCAA championship rings. She had enough such jewelry that both the daughter and niece of her former UK teammate Franci Niles Svoboda also got to wear one.
“I rarely wear my championship rings, so I thought ‘This is a perfect time to do that,’” Hansen Hecht said last Friday.
If you need a refresher on who Hansen Hecht is in the lore of University of Kentucky sports, try this:
In its venerated history, the UK men’s basketball program has won eight NCAA championships. While competing for Kentucky from 1993 through 1996, Hansen Hecht won eight gymnastics national titles — three all-around, five in individual events — all by herself.
Thirty years after she last competed as a Wildcat, Hansen Hecht traveled the 1,195 miles (one way) from her home in Golden, Colorado, to support the current Cats — whose season ended in Friday night’s Lexington Regional semifinal two.
In her own time as a Kentucky gymnast, there was always an element of enchantment to Hansen Hecht’s story. From the tiny town of Somerset, Wisconsin, (current population 3,380), Hansen Hecht fell in love with Central Kentucky horse country on a recruiting visit to UK.
Over four years at Kentucky, Hansen Hecht became the first gymnast ever to win the NCAA all-around title three years in a row (1993, ‘94 and ‘95). She earned All-America honors 13 times.
I have always wondered if Hansen Hecht harbors regret that she was not able to add a fourth NCAA all-around championship as a senior in 1996, when she finished seventh.
“I think I was a little bit frazzled by my senior year, just because it does, it wears on you,” Hansen Hecht said. “There’s a lot of wear and tear, I think, not only physically, but mentally. (Winning the fourth-straight all-around) just wasn’t in my cards, and that’s OK. I think what I accomplished is pretty spectacular.”
Since her Kentucky career ended, Hansen Hecht has channeled the abundant energy and athleticism that made her a gymnastics champion into a wildly interesting work history.
She has toiled as a Hollywood stuntwoman. “I’m still in SAG-AFTRA,” Hansen Hecht says of the labor union that represents many who work in entertainment. “So I can still (do stunt) work if someone calls me.”
Hansen Hecht has appeared in shows at theme parks, including Disneyland and Sea World. She was a trainer on Season 14 of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser”; was a stunt double on ABC Family Channel’s gymnastics-themed drama “Make It Or Break It”; and worked behind the scenes on NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior.”
For a time, Hansen Hecht was quenching her competitive thirst by competing in “Spartan Races” — essentially a foot race over an obstacle course filled with things like a barbed-wire crawl, spear throw and tire drag.
While competing in such an event in Temecula, California, she met another competitor, Michael Hecht, with whom she clicked.
“I met him in 2015, and in 2016 we got married,” Hansen Hecht said. “I stayed out in L.A. for (the) first year of marriage, and then I moved to Colorado.”
Michael Hecht is gearing up to contest at least two more Spartan Races. “He’s done 78. He wants to get to a cool 80,” his wife said.
In Colorado, Hansen Hecht is focused on the business she has started, Muscle Endeavors, which has “work spaces” in Denver, Littleton and Evergreen.
“I work with athletes and everyday people that have limitations with their range of motion,” said Hansen Hecht, who said her work focuses on “muscle activation techniques.”
At 52, Hansen Hecht is still involved with gymnastics, though now as a coach at the club and high school level.
“I still flip with the girls I coach,” she said. “I like demonstrating things for my athletes. ... That’s really kept me a little bit more in shape than just having to work out every day.”
With so much going on in Colorado, “it’s refreshing to step away and come to my second home,” Hansen Hecht said of Kentucky.
Three decades after her storied UK career ended, Hansen Hecht says she is still in touch with “probably 15” of her former Wildcats teammates. She remains close with Leah Little, who was her coach at UK.
Like a lot of ex-Cats who once competed there, Hansen Hecht marvels at how UK’s investment of some $82 million in renovating Memorial Coliseum has transformed what was an aging, somewhat musty facility into something modern and plush.
“Oh my gosh, it’s spectacular,” she said. “When we competed, we had a cassette tape for our music. Now, they have DJs and a sound system.”
