SANTA MONICA : Runner, 49, Urges Women to Stay on the Fast Track

Bonnie Frankel, the 49-year-old collegiate swimmer and runner who successfully challenged the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s athletic eligibility rules, is taking her story to the lecture circuit.

Frankel, a self-described “older adolescent,” has quite a story to tell. She has overcome breast cancer, divorce, the pain of her mother’s suicide--and successfully challenged the NCAA, winning the right to compete for Division I college swimming and track teams in midlife.

Her lectures, the first of which she plans to deliver today at Santa Monica Community College, are intended to expose women to the benefits of sport in a time of changing lifestyles and attitudes. She is also planning lectures at other colleges and at conventions.

“We need to change traditional rules,” said Frankel, now a track coach at Santa Monica High School. “Women say, ‘I don’t like sports,’ but what is running? It’s a fast dance! Sport can be used to center oneself, to challenge fears and deal with this obsession with weight.”

Her first talk, “Running Through Your Midlife Crisis,” deals with the importance of sport to enhance the body and focus the mind. Her target audience is women over 30 who are returning to school.

“I’d like to see women challenge themselves and do different things,” said Frankel, who is 5-foot-1 and weighs 96 pounds. “If you do a sport, you are using your body in a different way. You use your mind in a different way. It releases energy and creativity.”

Frankel’s own life has been a series of challenges. Growing up in Los Angeles in a well-to-do family, she saw her mother fight depression only to commit suicide a few years later. Frankel then married a prominent Los Angeles gynecologist, but soon divorced.

Her toughest challenge, she says, came when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32. She underwent a mastectomy and several subsequent surgeries.

Then, in 1989, she enrolled at Santa Monica Community College and found what she calls her salvation--athletic competition. She was spotted by former Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith, a coach at the college, and at 46 began training for the track team.

Two years later, she transferred to Loyola Marymount University where she faced her first obstacle from the athletic association. The NCAA had a five-year eligibility clause for returning student-athletes, which meant that Frankel--because she had attended Santa Monica College in 1962 for one semester--lost her eligibility to compete for a Division I school in 1967.

Frankel challenged the NCAA ruling.

“I never felt uncertain (about challenging the NCAA) because I knew their rule was wrong,” she said. In her challenge, Frankel argued that she should not have been subject to the NCAA eligibility rule because, at the time she enrolled at Santa Monica College, the college did not have an inter-collegiate sports program for women.

Frankel won. In a unanimous decision, the rules committee voted to include the “Bonnie Clause,” which waives the five-year eligibility rule for women athletes who attended college before 1982--the year the NCAA took charge of women’s athletics.

One year later, Frankel is preparing for her next challenge: She hopes to qualify for the 1996 Olympic trials in track and field and hopes to set a world record for her age group in the 800 meters.

She does not seem too concerned with her odds, though at 51 she would be the oldest competitor at the trials.

“Human potential has no limits,” she said. “Once people drop the psychological crap (mental blocks), the possibilities are boundless.”

Bonnie Frankel will give her lecture at 11 a.m. today, in Room 152 of the Santa Monica College Physical Education Building, 1900 Pico Blvd. Information: (310) 450-5150, Ext. 9850.