New IOC Member Anita DeFrantz Plans to Be Both Seen <i> and</i> Heard

As a member of the exclusive International Olympic Committee since only last October, Anita DeFrantz has been willing to accept advice from her new colleagues.

But not all of it.

One member told her recently that in her first year, she should be seen and not heard.

“No chance of that,” said DeFrantz, program director of Los Angeles’ Amateur Athletic Foundation. DeFrantz, 34, was elected by IOC members at their 91st Session last October in Lausanne to replace the late Julian Roosevelt as the second U.S. representative. Robert Helmick, a Des Moines, Iowa, attorney and the United States Olympic Committee president, was elected in 1985.

Even though DeFrantz is the second-youngest of the 91 members--Prince Albert of Monaco, 29, is the youngest--she said she will be an activist, starting today when the IOC convenes its 92nd Session in Istanbul.

But on behalf of whom?

IOC members are supposed to be independent, even from their own countries’ Olympic committees, but DeFrantz would seem to have several constituencies.

A bronze medal winner in rowing at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, she has been an outspoken advocate of athletes’ rights, having sued the USOC because of its decision to boycott the 1980 Moscow Games.

She also is a black with close ties to African Olympic committees, a woman who has labored to promote sexual equality in sports and a USOC officer.

Although those interests are not necessarily conflicting, they sometimes have varying agendas.

DeFrantz said she will listen to all and bow to none.

“When I was in college, my honors thesis was titled, ‘The Philosophical Value of a Plurality of Ideas,’ ” said DeFrantz, who earned her undergraduate degree at Connecticut College and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

“The basic idea is that the more information you have, and the more descriptions you have of what truth is, the more likely you are to find it.

“The more I hear from people, the more demands that are made on me, the better able I’ll be to make good decisions. If I can hear from all the groups and take into account all of their needs, I think I’m in a much better position than if I’m a single-issue person.

“I do hope to maintain the respect of those groups. I think I’m in a wonderful position because I have those contacts with people who will be honest with me. If they think I’ve done something wrong, they will let me know.”

Rejecting labels, she said she would like to be known as someone who cares about the Olympic movement.

“I think, at least now, I’m an advocate of opportunity--an advocate of the opportunity for people to learn about sport and what it can offer,” she said.

“Working at the Amateur Athletic Foundation, I’ve learned so much about what needs to be done, what hasn’t been done and what the potential is.

“In our country, sport can be a real factor in communication. It’s considered trivial or else it’s considered big business in terms of entertainment.

“But there’s a vast region in between that might be characterized as a desert. There are areas of incredible beauty and success and areas that have been suffering from a drought for a long time.”

One of the neglected areas in DeFrantz’ opinion is women’s athletics.

She said she was shocked to discover while working for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee that there were 684 medals for men in the 1984 Summer Games and 191 for women.

Her first campaign as the IOC’s fifth woman member will be for the inclusion of women’s softball as an official sport in the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona. The IOC added baseball last October for 1992.

“In my judgment, we should not be bringing in sports that don’t have men’s and women’s divisions,” DeFrantz said. “In some cases, I would make an exception to allow sports that have women only, although there are very few of those left in the world.”

Another issue the IOC will consider here is whether to accept the International Tennis Federation’s proposal that all tennis professionals be allowed to participate in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. The IOC’s executive board has recommended passage if the professionals will agree to suspend their lucrative endorsement contracts during the Games.

DeFrantz said that she and Helmick, at the behest of the United States Tennis Assn., will support the proposal as an experiment for 1988.

“I’m sure there will be long and thoughtful discussions about what it means to even undertake this experiment,” DeFrantz said. “I know there are some members who feel strongly opposed to it.

“But some of the signs are pretty clear that we’ll at least give it a try this time around. I think that’s the majority.

“Personally, I think it’s the right thing to do, so long as the athletes understand they have to be selected by their national Olympic committees. They have to serve--no pun intended--under the same rules as the rest of the members of the team, including wearing the uniforms and whatever the national Olympic committees direct as far as housing and so forth.

“In some senses, it’s not unlike our romantic view of what happened in the ancient Games, where nations put down their arms for a period of time. These athletes are putting down their contracts.”

On the controversial issue of eligibility, amateurs vs. professionals, DeFrantz has been accused by some USOC members of being pro pros. She has not denied it. She said she is for all athletes.

“I often worry about rules that eliminate people,” she said. “I’m more interested in rules that make it possible for people to follow their ideals and their goals.

“For me, the most important issue is that everyone knows where the Games are, when they are and how to get there. It’s up to you, the individual athlete, to decide whether to compete.”

She called that being in touch with reality, something not all U.S. representatives to the IOC have had a talent for in the past, former IOC president Avery Brundage being the most notable example.

That perhaps is one reason U.S. influence on IOC decisions has declined. DeFrantz said she and Helmick hope to change that.

“I hope I can find a mentor or two within the IOC who can teach me the ropes and give me some history on what went wrong,” DeFrantz said.

“Part of that clearly was Avery Brundage, who was such a powerful force for so long that he made it difficult for every other IOC member from the U.S. to have a real presence. When he stepped aside, there was a vacuum that was difficult to fill.

“There was also, I’m sure, hard feelings about some of the things that were done during his administration. But that’s over. It’s a new age.”

DeFrantz said she would like to be one of the new-age leaders, even if she has not entirely convinced herself that she belongs among IOC members.

“It’s scary,” she said. “I’ve got to remember to be myself. I’m not a prince or a political leader or a wealthy industrialist. I have to accept that. They already have.”

There are other lessons to be learned. One of her first official acts as an IOC member was to visit Sofia, Bulgaria, which is bidding for the 1994 Winter Games.

“I received a very warm reception,” she said. “But I know I’m not going to make 40 years of this stuff if every place I go I’m greeted with a toast at 9 o’clock in the morning.”