Necklace Was ‘Personal Gift’ to DeFrantz

International Olympic Committee Vice President Anita DeFrantz, who has often said her policy while on Olympic business is to decline gifts, said today in Sydney, Australia, that she’d accepted a gold-and-garnet necklace at an IOC session in 1990 in Tokyo.

But, she said, the pendant--which bears the interlocked Olympic rings--was not offered to influence her vote on behalf of Nagano, Japan, which was then bidding for the 1998 Winter Games.

It was, she said, offered as a token of friendship to her and to the spouses of her male IOC counterparts by the wife of Japanese IOC member Chiharu Igaya.

Igaya, who like DeFrantz is attending a meeting here of the IOC’s ruling executive board, called it a “personal gift” and said he and his wife had borne the cost for “a little over 100” such pieces. Each necklace cost less than $100, he said.

DeFrantz said she’d done nothing wrong. A 1976 bronze medalist in rowing, she said: “I am an Olympian. I’m proud to wear the rings. The necklace was given to me by the wife of a colleague, and I wear it proudly.”

DeFrantz was also asked if she believes IOC members are now under an “unfair spotlight” because of the corruption scandal tied to Salt Lake City’s bid for the 2002 Games. “The easy way to answer this,” she said, “is to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ ”