Patterson is a special agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). She was one of more than 50 special agents assigned to protect America’s athletes and teams as they trained, competed, and traveled to media appearances.

The writing studies grad, who excelled as a cross-country and track athlete at EMU, worked as a field liaison officer at the ice rinks in Milan, where she safeguarded USA’s figure skaters, hockey teams, and speed skaters, including gold medalists Ilia Malinin, Alysa Liu, and Jordan Stolz.

“Part of being there is taking time to observe the crowd and ensure everything’s secure and all set-up,” said Patterson. “But it’s also a lot of sport-watching and cheering on Team USA and hoping the athletes you’ve been with do well.”

“Figure skating was phenomenal. I was in awe of what they’re able to do. But the crowd with the biggest atmosphere, I think, was probably men’s and women’s hockey. It was a very exhilarating environment. It was hard not to get caught up and feel the roar of the crowd cheering on the teams.” 

Hannah Patterson ’14, a special agent with the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, worked a “pretty intense schedule” at the 2026 Winter Olympics, often starting her workday at 7 a.m. to protect athletes while they trained and working well past midnight for competitions that ended late.

‘It’s just one big adventure’

Born in Singapore to parents involved in community development work, Patterson moved with her family to Indonesia when she was 12. She attended Mountainview International Christian School. It was there she learned one of her classmates, nursing grad David Jantzi ’13, whose parents were alumni, had his sights set on attending EMU.

“I ended up applying on a whim,” said Patterson, “and I’m so grateful I did.”

She said one of the major draws to EMU was that its financial aid office was “so proactive” in telling her which grants and awards were available. “EMU was such an obviously tight-knit community that cared, even before I showed up, and that just followed through over the next four years,” she said. “Looking back now, I wouldn’t have done as well at a big state school where I would’ve felt like just a number. My professors were always there for me, and I loved that about EMU.”

Another draw was its intercultural programs. Patterson immersed herself in the cultures of South Africa and Lesotho for a semester and said she treasures EMU’s global focus.

“I love the sense of adventure that EMU carries with it,” she said. “That’s something I feel almost every day on the job. It’s just one big adventure, and every day is a cross-cultural experience.”

Hannah Patterson ’14 (pictured third from left), a cross-country and track athlete at EMU, said her coaches ensured she was growing and finding her place in the world. “I loved being on a team that was incredibly supportive, and I think my teammates, coaches, and track and cross-country teams really shaped me as a person, pushed me, and helped me grow. In a school that is so community-focused, it was nice to have an even tighter group to grow and dream with.”

Patterson graduated with a writing studies degree in 2014 (right photo). She said her intercultural experiences in South Africa (left photo) and Lesotho, along with the mentorship she received from professors, helped shape her love of adventure. “It’s a huge thing to be able to travel as much as I do and I am very grateful for it,” she said.

Landing the job

After graduating in 2014, Patterson was working at Black Sheep Coffee in Harrisonburg when she mentioned to a coworker she was seeking a career change. Unbeknownst to her, that coworker’s husband was a DSS agent working at a training center in West Virginia, and she suggested that Patterson would be a good fit for the job, based on her experience growing up overseas and her love of adventure.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted it to be relational,” Patterson said. “Along with the daily problem-solving and micro-challenges I enjoy, I’m very grateful this job exists, that I’m able to do it, and that I had a lot of good mentors at EMU along the way to encourage me.”

Patterson worked at the training center (now known as the ) for a half-decade, before applying and landing a job as a . She began training in July 2021 and, after a rigorous training process, officially became an agent in April 2022.

Since then, she’s built up an impressive foreign service career. She worked in Kyiv, Ukraine, for three months during the war. She also served at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for one year.

Last year, Patterson interviewed for her current role as an agent at the Major Events Coordination Office, which secures international events such as the G7 and G20 summits, Pan American Games, and FIFA World Cup, in addition to the Olympics and Paralympics. When she learned she had been selected to join the office, she said she was “out-of-this-world thrilled.”

“It can be quite competitive, and I was very excited that I get to do this for the next two years (DSS agents typically switch offices every one to three years),” said Patterson. “Next year, we’ll have the Pan American Games and the Women’s World Cup, which will be in Brazil.”

This month, Hannah Patterson ’14 will help protect Team USA’s athletes as they train and compete at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, held in Milan and Cortina, Italy, from March 6-15.

Patterson, who has been in Italy since Jan. 27, will also keep watch over America’s athletes during the 2026 Winter Paralympics, held in Milan and Cortina from March 6-15. She’ll serve as one of the special agents staffing a DSS Joint Operations Center at the U.S. Consulate in Milan.

She took advantage of the four-day break in between training for the Olympics and Paralympics to explore the mountains of northern Italy. Inspired by the athletes she watched during the Olympics, she learned to ski for the first time.

“I never thought of this as a career option when I was going to school,” said Patterson. “I remember telling my poetry professor, Michael Ann Courtney, ‘I’m going to be a starving artist for the rest of my life,’ and she told me, ‘No, Hannah, don’t worry. The world is so much bigger than that.’ And it turns out she was right.”

By Heather Bowser, Daily News-Record

Perched in the third row of the 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest stadium, Sue Blauch watched as sweat dripped down the faces of 2,008 fierce-looking Chinese drummers.

For nearly 10 minutes, the legion pounded red, glow-in-the-dark sticks into huge drums with perfect synchronicity. It was intimidating, she said. It was perfect. It was beautiful.

"To watch those drummers that close, that was amazing," Blauch said. "And they kneeled for 20 minutes before they ever started. They stayed perfectly still. It’s hard for me to imagine anything like it."

Sue Blauch, 43, of Harrisonburg, returned home this week from Beijing, where she refereed seven Olympic women’s basketball games, including the bronze medal game. (Photo by Michael Reilly)

Two hours later, after Blauch watched 13,000 more Chinese men and women perform in the artistic segment of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, nearly 10,500 athletes marched into the stadium, only yards from her seat. The president of the United States and the first lady, she later learned, were sitting 10 rows behind her.

Blauch was no ordinary spectator. She was on the job.

The 43-year-old Harrisonburg woman was one of about 30 referees chosen from around the globe to officiate men’s and women’s basketball at the Olympics. She was one of only two American refs and the only woman in the crew.

After the games wrapped up more than two weeks of competition on Sunday, Blauch returned to the Friendly City toting all the memories of the sports, her job and that first night in Beijing.

"Sometimes, I have to pinch myself," Blauch told the Daily News-Record in an interview in her home on Chestnut Drive. "Did I just do that? Did I just go to the Olympics? I’m a very ordinary person and I’ve gotten to do some extraordinary things. It doesn’t quite seem real; it’s amazing."

The daughter of Harrisonburg residents Dale and Miriam Blauch, the "ordinary" girl grew up in Short Gap, W.Va., and later transferred to Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg. A few years later, in 1986, she graduated from Eastern Mennonite College, now University.

She had a basketball in her hands the whole time.

Eventually, her love of the sport pushed her toward officiating and, from there, she took off. For the last 18 years, Blauch has worked her way up as a referee for women’s amateur, college, professional and international basketball. She regularly works games all across the United States and has traveled abroad several times for major competitions.

Blauch’s journey to the Olympics began in February, when a committee of higher-ups from USA Basketball nominated her for the honor. She was selected from about two dozen American referees the committee had to choose from.

Although Olympic refs don’t get paid for working the games, her travel, accommodations and food were paid for by USA Basketball and the international Basketball Federation.

The honor of being a ref in the Olympics is generally given to officiators only once.

Work And Play

On Aug. 1, after 18 hours of flying, Blauch landed in China and hit the ground running. (Her luggage, unfortunately, wouldn’t arrive from Canada, where she departed, for a few more days.)

About a day after touching down, Blauch left to officiate three games in the Diamond Ball tournament in Haining, China. The event was a preliminary tournament for the Olympics.

On Aug. 9, the day after the opening ceremonies, the real work began.

"The Olympics have a different feel because when the players are competing for their country, there’s a different level of intensity," she said. "But there’s still a certain level of respect for the refs."

About 10 minutes before each game, the announcers introduce each player and then both national anthems are played. Next, the teams and referees exchange gifts.

Referees in international basketball often exchange gifts at all big meets, typically giving each other pins. In the U.S., Blauch works for the WNBA, so she brought novelty items and socks stitched with the league’s logo to give.

Over the next two weeks, Blauch officiated seven games, culminating with the bronze medal game between Russia and the host Chinese team.

In the evenings and on her six days off, Blauch and her ref friends soaked up China and its culture, touring Beijing and surrounding areas. They saw the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Silk Street and various temples and attractions in between.

"I became very, very good at charades," she said. "And I ate a lot of kung pow chicken."

She did not, however, taste any of the exotic snacks, such as the famous scorpion-on-a-stick.

"I wasn’t that adventurous," she said.

The Road Home

Blauch’s adventures came to a close on Sunday as she left China and returned home. She arrived in Harrisonburg early Monday morning and has spent the last few days adjusting to life after the Olympics.

On Tuesday, she will jump back into the saddle and ref a WNBA game in Washington, D.C. She’ll work five more games over the next two weeks.

"As long as it’s fun and I’m healthy, I’ll keep going," she said.

For now, though Blauch will spend the weekend enjoying the companionship of her close family, two labs and friends.

"This was the chance of a lifetime," she said.

Sue Blauch is living a once-in-a-lifetime hoops dream.

For 15 years, the Harrisonburg resident has been a referee for women’s amateur, college and professional basketball.

This year, the stage will get even bigger for Blauch. She will be one of about a dozen women’s basketball referees for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, said B.J. Johnson, USA Basketball’s manager of competitive programs.

And Blauch, 43, will be the only American referee for the women’s games.

Sue Blauch, 43, of Harrisonburg, was selected to be the only women’s basketball referee from the United States to work the Beijing Olympics. Blauch brings the competitive drive of a player to her officiating duties. Photo by Nikki Fox

A committee of “higher-ups” from USA Basketball nominated Blauch in February from a pool of about two dozen qualifying American referees, Johnson said.

“She’s one of our best,” he said. “This is our highest honor.”

Once Upon A Basketball

Blauch’s story begins in a small town in West Virginia.

Growing up in Short Gap, W.Va., she’s had a basketball in her hands since she was in third grade.

“I would just play for hours,” said Blauch, the daughter of Harrisonburg residents Dale and Miriam Blauch.

She played on teams, went to camps and shot hoops with the neighbors and her father. In 1980, after her sophomore year at Frankford High School, Blauch transferred to Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, where she lived as a boarding student and played for the Flames.

In 1986, Blauch graduated from Eastern Mennonite College (which became ��ݮ���� in 1994), where she and her team clinched the school’s first women’s Old Dominion Athletic Conference championship. Read more about women’s basketball at EMU…

“I’d have been dangerous had I been 6 feet tall,” said Blauch, who, at 5 feet 7 inches, played forward. “I loved banging around at the post position.”

After graduation, her playing career came to a close.

But Blauch managed to keep her foot on the court by coaching at Eastern Mennonite while working part time in various capacities at the school. All the while, she said, “officiating had never entered my mind.”

That mindset changed in 1988, when Blauch took a full-time job as a recruiter for EMU. Suddenly, she was spending her evenings during basketball season traveling to college fairs around the state, rather than coaching.

She had run out of time for fun.

“It was the first time I didn’t have a basketball season,” she said. “I missed it so much.”

Donning Stripes

That’s when she decided to put on stripes.

At the request of some friends, Blauch began volunteering as a referee for a church league in Harrisonburg. Although she had never officiated before, the thought of being back on the court struck a chord.

“I was really nervous,” she said.

Nervous or not, she quickly developed a knack for refereeing.

“I found that I could take my competitiveness that I had as player, and transfer it,” she said.

With that, the hobby grew.

From the church league, Blauch expanded her officiating to local high schools, mostly in Augusta County. From there she moved on to college leagues, international basketball and then the pros.

The job became full-time in 2001, requiring her to spend weekends, nights and vacations traveling the world, lugging her whistle and striped shirts.

During her downtime, which was limited, Blauch managed to find time to earn a master’s in education from James Madison University. In the slower seasons, she worked part time in sales and marketing for her cousin’s plumbing business, Blauch Brothers, a job she continues today.

But it was the officiating, she said, that strummed at her heartstrings.

Since 1992, Blauch has officiated four armed forces national championships. She’s reffed semifinal, quarterfinal and regional final rounds of the NCAA tournament and the playoffs for the WNBA.

Outside the U.S., she officiated at the World Youth Games in Russia, the Junior World Championship in Argentina and again in the Czech Republic. In 2005, she was a referee for the World University Games in Turkey and, the next year, the World Championships in Brazil.

Olympics

On July 31, Blauch will leave for China.

First, she’ll ref at the Diamond Ball tournament in Hangzhou, China, and then for the Olympic Games, starting Aug. 8. Although she doesn’t know how many games she’ll officiate, she estimates it will be between seven and 10.

This will be her one and only Olympics, however, because the honor is given only once.

For now, Blauch plans to officiate at the college, professional and international level at least seven years, when she will turn 50. After that, she wants more time to work in her yard and enjoy the companionship of her close family, two labs and friends.

“Officiating gets into your blood,” Blauch said. “I feel like I’m an athlete in stripes.

“There are a lot of people who spend a lifetime just doing a job,” she continued. “I get to do something I love.”