USOC President’s Job on the Line : Athletics: Vote on term limit could determine whether Helmick stays past January of 1993.

Although the U.S. Olympic Committee allows its president to serve only one four-year term, Robert Helmick will have been in the office for almost eight years when his current term expires in January of 1993.

And if the USOC’s board of directors adopts proposed legislation at its meeting this weekend in Dallas, Helmick could extend his presidency for four years.

Drafters of the legislation said the vote should not be interpreted as a referendum on Helmick’s leadership. Nevertheless, some among the 100 voting board members have said they support the legislation because they believe Helmick is the only viable candidate.

Anita DeFrantz disagrees.

“Everyone says that there are no candidates other than Bob,” DeFrantz said. “I can think of one or two people.”

She mentioned William Tutt, a USOC vice president from Colorado Springs, Colo. She also mentioned herself.

“I can’t say that 1993 is the right year for me, but I know it’s something I’ll do at some point,” she said. “It’s important for me to be a candidate. I don’t know if I’ll be elected, but I think I have a great deal to offer. If they feel they are in a bind for leadership, I’d like to think they would come to me.”

DeFrantz is one of two U.S. members of the International Olympic Committee. The other is Helmick. If they run against one another, the election could turn into a USOC version of the clash of the titans. But some USOC board members said they believe one or the other would step aside to avoid a potentially divisive campaign.

A Los Angeles lawyer who presides over the Amateur Athletic Foundation, DeFrantz has made a quick transition from athlete to administrator in the Olympic movement. After earning a bronze medal as a rower in the 1976 Summer Olympics, she served as a vice president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984 and has become increasingly influential in international sports circles since becoming an IOC member in 1986. At 38, she is the second-youngest of the IOC’s 92 members.

Perhaps the only person in the United States with more impressive international sports credentials is Helmick, 53, a Des Moines, Iowa, lawyer. A former water polo player, he was president of the International Swimming Federation in 1984-88. Elected to the IOC in 1985, he became one of its 11 executive board members four years later.

A USOC vice president in 1985, Helmick ascended to the presidency when John B. Kelly of Philadelphia died only two months into his term. Despite a USOC rule limiting the president to one four-year term, Helmick was allowed to run for the office in 1989 because he had not previously been elected to a full four-year term. He won without opposition.

Now, the USOC’s legislative committee has forwarded a measure to the board of directors that would allow a president to serve two four-year terms. That change in the USOC’s constitution might have passed, on its merits, at some other time with limited discussion.

But because the proposed legislation would enable Helmick to run in 1993 for, in effect, a third term, it is controversial. At a recent meeting in North Carolina involving representatives of the 41 national governing bodies (NGBs), that issue received by far the most discussion. Six versions of the legislation were considered.

“I can oftentimes predict how the body will vote on a particular issue, but, on this, I don’t know,” said Peter Lippett, chairman of the NGB Council. “There are some strong philosophical feelings that we shouldn’t let any one person serve too long. I’d say right now it’s a close call.”

Some of the measure’s opponents have suggested that Helmick initiated it in order to remain in office, but Lippett said that was not true. He said he heard of the idea during a meeting two years ago with Baaron Pittenger, then executive director of the USOC. Lippett said he and others later drafted the proposed legislation.

“Baaron brought up the point that most national Olympic committees have their president in office for a lot longer than we do,” Lippett said. “Whether you want to call it an old-boy network or whatever, they look askance at the USOC when we change our president every four years. They ask, ‘Why can’t the USOC choose someone and stick with him?’ Baaron said we were shooting ourselves in the foot by changing so often.”

But Lippett said he has heard no sentiment within the USOC for allowing the president to serve more than two terms. “It goes against the American grain to leave someone in there too long,” he said. “We don’t want anyone to build a dynasty.”

Fearing that Helmick could do that if he remains president until 1997, some of his critics are considering alternative legislation. It would allow the president to serve two terms, but it would stipulate that any length of time exceeding three years be defined as a term. That would prohibit Helmick from running in 1993 because he served more than three years of Kelly’s term.

“Unfortunately, this seems to have come down to an issue of whether we’re going to reelect Bob,” DeFrantz said. “But it’s a bigger issue than that, one of importance to the future of the organization. I don’t see why it has to be addressed now. What’s the rush?

“Some people say it’s appropriate to decide now because they want to make sure that Bob doesn’t run. Others say it’s appropriate because Bob is doing a fantastic job. Others say there are no other candidates.

“Well, there aren’t supposed to be any candidates until the nominating committee meets some time in 1992. No one should be running right now. It’s not appropriate to undermine the president.”

Helmick said he supports the legislation but has not lobbied on its behalf. “But because I’m personally involved, I’ve tried not to express a view,” he said. “It should not be a Bob Helmick issue.”

Even if the measure is adopted, he said he might not run again because of the amount of time the position has forced him to spend away from his law practice. USOC officers are unpaid volunteers.

“It’s a tremendous financial burden,” he said. “I would consider becoming a candidate when the time comes for the nominating committee to organize itself, but I won’t make a decision before then.”