USF Athletics

Olympic Gold Medalist (1988)
U.S National Sailing Hall of Fame Inductee (2019)
Florida Sports Hall of Fame Inductee (2016)

Allison Jolly joined USF Athletics in 2004 as head coach of the sailing team. One of the most successful women in U.S. national sailing history, Jolly brings a wealth of experience and cabinets full of achievements to leading the Bulls’ program, based at the USF St. Petersburg campus.
 
Jolly has led the Bulls' sailing team to six appearances at the ICSA Women's Singlehanded Nationals (2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015) and 12 straight appearances in the ICSA Women's Dinghy Nationals (2005 through 2016). The team’s best finishes were seventh in 2011 and 10^th in 2013.
 
Throughout the fall 2015 season, the Bulls were consistently ranked among the top 10 in the nation by Sailing World's College Rankings. USF won the 2015 SAISA Women's Fall Conference Championships and finished second at the 2016 SAISA Women’s Spring Championships.

Jolly was an All-American sailor at Florida State University and won the Women’s Collegiate National Championship in 1975 and 1976.  She won two U.S. Women’s Sailing Championships, posted a runner-up finishes in the 1976 European Women’s Championships and the Timmy Angsten Regatta and in 1977, at the age of 20, she became the youngest woman ever to win the Yachtswoman of the Year Award from the New York Yacht Club, "considered the top prize in yachting." She accomplished all this before graduating from college. 
 
The highlight of her sailing career occurred when the International Olympic Committee announced the first-ever women's sailing event for the 1988 Olympics. Jolly and her crew, Lynne Jewell, were the first women to win a gold medal in sailing in the modern Olympic Games, which date to 1896. Jolly became the first gold-medal winning female skipper in history, as her and Jewell won in the waters off Pusan, South Korea the 1988 Olympic Games, and remain the only American women to win gold in the 470 Class.

To win the gold, Jolly made two daring calls in the seventh and final race. Sailing in 30-35 knot winds and rough seas, she first made the call to lower the jib and make a repair while navigating in treacherously huge waves. Next, with the wind howling at 35 knots, Jolly called for the spinnaker set, the only boat in the fleet to take the risk. The gamble and her skill sailing in high seas paid off as the boat made up for the time lost during the repair and finished high enough to claim gold.

Jolly continued racing for the next 10 years, winning championships in 470s and Fireballs. In 2010, she was elected as President of the US 470 Class Association.
 
After attending Columbia University School of Engineering as a freshman, Jolly returned to the sunshine state and earned a degree in chemistry from Florida State University. She worked as a chemist in Atlanta and later as a computer programmer in California before returning to Florida once again to coach sailing.

Jolly was inducted to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in November 2016.

In 2019, she became just the second Floridian and fifth women inducted into the U.S. National Sailing Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. 
 
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Fla, Jolly began sailing at the age of 10 and currently resides in St. Petersburg with her family.