Anita DeFrantz

Anita DeFrantz
Personal information
National team United States
Born (1952-10-04) October 4, 1952
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Medal record
Rowing
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
1976 Montreal Women's eight

Anita Lucette DeFrantz (born October 4, 1952) is an American Olympic rower, member of the International Olympic Committee, and twice Vice-President of International Rowing Federation (FISA).

Biography

DeFrantz was born in 1952 in Philadelphia, USA.[1] A member of the Vesper Boat Club in her home city,[1] she was captain of the American rowing team at the 1976 Summer Olympics winning the bronze medal in women's eight. In 1980 the government of the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympic Games in Moscow, Russia and, although DeFrantz had qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, she was unable compete.[2] DeFrantz played a prominent role in the fight against this boycott [3] and, many years later, she was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead.

Board member

In 1986, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) appointed DeFrantz to lifetime membership in the organization. She became the first female vice-president of the IOC executive committee in 1997 and served till 2001. On June 25, 2012, DeFrantz told AroundTheRings.com that she would like to return to the IOC Executive Committee.[4] She was elected back onto the IOC Executive Board on September 10, 2013 and she was elected to a four-year term as IOC Vice President at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru in September 2017.[5]

DeFrantz is also on the board of the Al Oerter Foundation (AOF) which runs the Art of the Olympians[6] (AOTO) program which is an international organization of Olympian and Paralympian artists promoting the Olympic values and ideals through educational and cultural programs and exhibitions.[7]

Honors

In 2017, a plaque honoring her was unveiled in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum's Court of Honor.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill. "Anita DeFrantz". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  2. ↑ Caroccioli, Tom; Caroccioli, Jerry. Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Highland Park, IL: New Chapter Press. pp. 243–253. ISBN 978-0942257403.
  3. ↑ "Oral History of Anita DeFrantz by the LA84 Foundation" (PDF).
  4. ↑ Around The Rings: U.S. IOC Member Declares for Executive Board
  5. ↑ IOC Session votes on Executive Board positions
  6. ↑ "Art of the Olympians | Anita DeFrantz". artoftheolympians.org. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Home". artoftheolympians.org. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  8. ↑ Latimer, Jolene (June 22, 2017). "Female Olympic Athletes Honored Over 50 Years Later | GOOD Sports". Sports.good.is. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.