DeFrantz Joins IOC Inner Circle : Olympics: She is elected to executive board. Selection of second U.S. member is postponed until 1993.

The International Olympic Committee looked out for the United States’ interests with the election of Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles to the influential 11-member executive board Thursday, then looked out for its own interests by postponing until next year the selection of a second U.S. representative to the 95-member organization.

DeFrantz, 39, president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation and a former Olympic bronze medalist in rowing, ascended to the IOC’s inner circle, where most of the Olympic movement’s important issues are resolved, only six years after becoming a member.

She will serve the year remaining in the term vacated by Robert Helmick, former U.S. Olympic Committee president who resigned from both the USOC and the IOC last year under a cloud of conflict-of-interest charges. Because of a change this week in the IOC charter, DeFrantz will be allowed to seek election to a full four-year term in September, 1993, at an IOC session in Monte Carlo, where a second U.S. member of the IOC also is expected to be named.

There were three openings on the board, but DeFrantz chose to run only for the one-year slot.

“That way my colleagues can see if I do a good job,” she told the Associated Press. “Then if I do a good job, I’ll be reelected next year.”

DeFrantz said one of her priorities will be to improve the way the IOC projects itself to the world. Recent books and media reports have criticized the organization.

“All of the members feel strongly about communications and getting the word out about what we do, perhaps in our own voice,” she said. “Often we rely on other people talking about us and have to correct what they said. The mood of the entire session is we need to do a better job of speaking on our own behalf.”

Canadian Richard Pound, who also was elected Thursday to the executive board, explained the delay in selecting a second U.S. member by saying: “The IOC needs some time to study the names.”

Added Pound: “In addition to the list (of recommendations) submitted by the U.S. Olympic Committee, there were many other people’s names brought forward.

“With Anita on the executive board, that will cover anything that could come up in the meantime for the U.S.”

But sources close to the situation said that the uncertainty of the outcome of November’s U.S. presidential election also played a role in the postponement.

One source said that Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., the Democratic vice presidential nominee, relayed a message through an intermediary to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, requesting the delay.

Said the intermediary, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified: “Basically, the message said, ‘We’re going to win in November, and we want to make the U.S. Olympic movement more representative of a new America, one which is open to viewpoints other than those espoused by the Republicans.’ ”

Until Thursday, USOC President William Hybl, 49, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was considered the leading candidate to be named to the IOC. He has strong ties to the Republican Party. A former state legislator in Colorado, he served as a special counsel to President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in Washington and as chairman of George Bush’s election committee in Colorado in 1988.

He has maintained contact with the Bush Administration, most recently eliciting support from the government for the IOC’s compromise plan to allow Yugoslav athletes to compete in the Summer Olympics, despite United Nations’ sanctions against sports contacts with the country.

But the IOC, one member said, was concerned that Hybl might not be as effective with a Democratic president in office. The member said it was particularly important that the IOC have the support of the U.S. government because the 1996 Summer Olympics are in Atlanta.

That also was the position of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) in its attempts to have the decision postponed, the member said.

If the Republicans win the election, he said, the IOC could select Hybl next year. “We lose nothing by waiting,” he said.

Hybl was on the list of four names recommended to the IOC by the U.S. Olympic Committee. Others were USOC Vice President Michael Lenard of Los Angeles, International Baseball Assn. President Robert Smith of Greenville, Ill., and the international swimming federation’s secretary, Ross Wales of Cincinnati.

When IOC members complained that the choices were too limited, the USOC presented an unofficial list that, one source said, included three other names. The IOC, another source said, was considering as many as 15 names at one point.

Among those IOC members said they would like to see nominated next year were Peter Ueberroth, former president Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee; Billy Payne, president of ACOG; David Stern, Commissioner of the NBA; Donna De Varona, former U.S. Olympic swimmer; John MacAloon, a University of Chicago anthropologist; and Andrew Young, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Although USOC officials were not pleased with the postponement, they were enthusiastic about DeFrantz’s election to the executive board. They had speculated Wednesday that she would not win because 15 members from the Americas had decided to vote as a block for Pound.

But after the elections of Pound and India’s M. Ashwini Kumar, seven other candidates withdrew, leaving only DeFrantz and Norway’s Jan Staubo in the race for the third position. DeFrantz won, 65-20.

“I think the other candidates withdrew in deference to Anita’s qualifications,” Pound said. “The only negative is her lack of experience, and at least you can find a way to build experience.”

DeFrantz becomes the second female member of the executive board, joining Venezuela’s Flor Isava-Fonseca. DeFrantz was the first black woman elected to the IOC six years ago.

Two new IOC members were elected, Sergio Santander Fantini of Chile and Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah of Kuwait. Fahad replaces his father, who was killed by Iraqi soldiers while protecting the royal family’s palace during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.