Still hot over an old, cold decision

It is likely that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson never met Anita DeFrantz, or heard of her. That’s probably better for his mental well-being.

Before the presidential candidate brought up the subject of possible Olympic-related action against China in Sunday night’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire, he might have called Jimmy Carter.

One question for the former president might have been: “What sort of beehive might I be stirring up if start down this path?”

Carter’s answer, even all these years later, would probably include the phrase, “Well, there’s this woman in Los Angeles named Anita DeFrantz, and ...”

Indeed, if you drop the “B” word in conversation around DeFrantz, be ready to duck.

When Carter made the United States Olympic team boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow, he incurred the wrath of many Olympians. They had trained and prepared to reach the peak of their competitive lives and were left at home to watch on TV as others won medals. The leader of that wrath -- the most frequent, articulate and passionate -- was DeFrantz.

To this day, she has mellowed little on the subject, as Carter well knows and Richardson might learn. At an event hosted by Carter at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, 16 years after Moscow, she was seated next to the former president, who at one point turned to her and said, “Anita, when are you going to stop beating me up over this?”

DeFrantz is among three members of the International Olympic Committee from the United States. She served a four-year term as IOC vice president, the first woman to do so, and she is running for a spot on the IOC executive board, an election that will take place in July in Guatemala City.

For the last 20 years, she has served as president of the Amateur Athletic Foundation, recently renamed the LA84Foundation. Her mandate has been, and continues to be, taking a $93-million grant as part of the legacy of the profits of the ’84 L.A. Games, growing that through investments and giving away large pieces of it to benefit youth sports in Southern California. The $93 million is now $170 million, and $164 million has been given away.

She is also a lawyer who spent her college years as a rower and who was part of a crew that won a bronze medal in the 1976 Games in Montreal. She, along with several hundred others in the U.S., was primed to compete in Moscow.

But along came Carter and his boycott, and DeFrantz’s life was never the same. Most of us have our battles. DeFrantz had her holy war. She was leader of the angry pack, the one in front of the microphone, a quote machine taking on the president of the United States.

Carter’s issue then was that the country about to host the ’80 Summer Olympics had marched 60,000 troops into Afghanistan, a military aggression he wanted reversed. One way to call international attention to that, Carter thought, was by using the leverage of a high-profile sports event. He reasoned that the threat of boycott would force the troops out and our athletes could then go and compete.

The troops remained and the U.S. athletes stayed home.

Richardson’s issue is that the country about to host the ’08 Games in Beijing is doing multibillion-dollar business with Sudan, which is allegedly killing thousands in its Darfur region. China is financing the violence while turning its back as it takes place, critics allege. Furthermore, China, as one of its influential members, has impeded attempts by the United Nations to take meaningful action in Sudan.

Richardson didn’t use the “B” word, but he didn’t have to.

“If the Chinese don’t want to [allow U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan], we say to them, maybe we won’t go to the Olympics,” he said.

Much to DeFrantz’s relief, only one other candidate responded with a sort of nod. Sen. John Edwards said, “ ... We should use whatever tools are available to us.”

DeFrantz, who now refers to Carter as “a fabulous past president,” remains adamant that the 1980 boycott was stupid and a Beijing boycott would be too.

DeFrantz says once, much later, she asked David C. Jones, Carter’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if he could tell her that one life was saved because of the boycott.

“He said he couldn’t,” DeFrantz said.

She says she knows her views could be seen as one of yet another selfish athlete, but she retains her stance.

“The only thing that happens with this is that athletes’ lives are ruined,” she said. “That’s the only outcome. You take away somebody else’s life, ambition and dreams. It is a dirty thing to do.

“I wrote an essay on this subject last year, and I think I finally figured out why this hurt so much, and still does. The 1980 U.S. Olympic team is a team with no result. We have no record. In the official IOC books, we didn’t exist.”

She is asked if this time a boycott might work, if athletic sacrifice might save lives.

“It won’t work because the timing doesn’t work,” she said. “It is like agreeing to wait a year and a half [until somebody is elected]. The situation in Darfur needs to be addressed right now. Anything else is completely dishonest.”

This may be the last we hear about a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Or it could just be the beginning of a big story. If it is the latter, be prepared for sound and fury coming from a woman in Los Angeles.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.