Mike Burley

Mike Burley attended The Ohio State University, where he was a distance runner on the track team, although he eventually graduated from the University of Texas in 1979. Burley had also been a high school swimmer and the two sports led him to the modern pentathlon. He joined the Army in 1971 and trained at the modern pentathlon training center in San Antonio. Burley was a member of the US team that won the 1979 World Championship, the only such title ever for an American team (through 2015). He also made the 1980 US Olympic team that could not compete, and was named an alternate to the 1984 Olympic team, retiring after that year.

Burley then worked in sports administration. He was the USOC Athlete Representative at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games, led the US modern pentathlon team at the 1992 Olympics, was modern pentathlon competition manager at the 1996 Olympics, and in 1999, Burley was named to the Technical Committee for rules by the Union Internataionale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM).