Bio

Olympian Luann Ryon (RCC Class of 1975) is the 2014 female athlete inductee. She competed in several national and international championships, including the Pan-Am Games and the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. At the Olympics the five-time California State Champion and the 1974 Individual Women’s College Champion, took home the gold medal in the 70-meter individual archery competition, setting a world record at age 23. The following year, she competed in the Women’s World Championship, securing another gold medal and world record. 

When faced with picking up a bow and arrow in a Riverside City College P.E. class, Luann Ryon remembers thinking that archery was “the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.””
Fast forward five years and the girl who was discouraged that day because all the RCC tennis classes were full, stepped onto the world stage in Montreal, Canada, and hit a gold medal bull’s-eye in women’s archery for the United States at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Ryon’s stepping onto the RCC campus in fall 1971 was the start of a 17-year career, which included a gold medal in the 1973 College National Team Championship, being named Individual Women’s College Champion in 1974 and RCC Female Athlete of the Year in 1975. She went on to compete at two Pan-American Games, several national and international championships, and the Olympics. She was a five-time California State Champion (1976-78, 1980, and 1982) and a gold medalist in the 1977 Women’s World Championship, shooting a 2,515 to set the world record.

Today, Ryon enjoys reminiscing about the Olympic experience and still seems in awe of her accomplishment. She says she was a “pretty good collegiate archer,” but definitely not the best. And she admits to being nearly sidelined with a severe case of nerves while living in the Olympic village in the days leading up to the competition.

Others had more confidence in the young archer, including a coach from a competing country, who predicted Ryon’s win at the expense of his own country’s archers. Perhaps it was her modest nature and barely controlled pre-event jitters that endeared Ryon to her teammates and opponents. Contemporaries and sports historians report that she was always well thought of as a competitor and viewed as a class act by those she competed against.

Ryon passed away in December of 2022. She will be remembered as a pioneer for women's collegiate athletics along with her long list of athletic accomplishments.