Sport: Sailing
Born: March 25, 1960
Town: Kearny, New Jersey
Elizabeth Mary Gelenitis was born March 25, 1960 in Kearny, NJ. “Betsy” was one of four children born to Eleanor and Frank Gelenitis, an attorney. The family owned a summer home in Brick and she began sailing a sunfish with her dad on Barnegat Bay when she was 7. Bright, focused and inquisitive, Betsy moved a year ahead in grade school and attended Marylawn of the Oranges in South Orange before enrolling at prestigious Montclair Kimberley Academy. She was a superb student and cheerleader at MKA and began winning blue-jay dinghy races as a teenager as a member of the Metedeconk River Yacht Club. She often paired up with her brother, Paul. Betsy also skippered the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association team when it traveled to regattas in other states
Betsy was admitted to Tufts in 1977, choosing the school in part because of its excellent sailing team, coached by Mark Mueller. When her father passed away her freshman year, Betsy threw herself into competitive sailing—running, weightlifting and often practicing and competing seven days a week. Having never had formal training, she soaked up everything she could from her teammates and asked a lot of question
In the spring of 1978, Betsy led the Tufts team to the New England paired-dinghy championship and also finished fifth at the intercollegiate nationals in San Diego. As a sophomore in the fall of 1978, she won the New England intercollegiate singlehanded sailing championship on the Charles River. In 1979, Betsy showed up in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” after winning the US women’s singlehanded and doublehanded sailing championships with Yale’s Nell Taylor. Betsy finished third in the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year voting in 1979.
In 1981, Betsy won the US Women’s singlehanded championship and finished third in the world championships. She was named Yachtswoman of the Year in 1981 and 1982, and again in 1984. She would win the award twice more, in 1993 and 1998. By then, she was Betsy Alison, having married New Zealand sailor and accountant Mike Alison. Betsy worked as a substitute teacher and sailing instructor when she wasn’t competing. The couple eventually moved to Newport, RI.
During the 1990s, Betsy won numerous titles and received the prestigious Adams Cup, the de facto US sailing championship. In 1998, she began coaching the US team in the World Disabled Sailing Championship. Today she is the US Sailing Team Paralympic Coach. In 2011, Betsy was the only female member of the inaugural class of inductees in the US National Sailing Hall of Fame. She entered with fellow New Jerseyan Gary Jobson.