The Ivy Influence: Anita DeFranz

Photo courtesy of the United States Organizing Committee

DID YOU KNOW? Anita DeFranz was a swimmer and basketball player before being introduced to rowing at the age of 18 as an undergraduate at Connecticut College.

With 2012 being an Olympic year, the eyes of world will soon turn its focus to London to see the world's greatest athletes compete on the world's greatest stage for the Games of the XXX Olympiad. One set of eyes that will be looking on with special interest are those of DeFranz, a Philadelphia native who grew up in Indianapolis.

DeFranz's affiliation with the Olympic movement is unparalleled. Active with the International Olympic Committee since 1986, DeFranz is currently on the IOC's Juridical Commission, the Finance Commission, the Coordination Commission for the 2012 Olympic Games and the Sport and Law Commission. She is also the chair of the IOC’s Women and Sport Commission and the IOC Athletes’ Commission Election Committee. Her various roles have had unique and substantial influences on the execution of the London Games as the IOC fosters complex relationships between the Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games, the National Olympic Committees and the various International Sports Federations.

DeFranz's work with the Olympics has taken her on an amazing voyage including winning a bronze medal as team captain of the U.S. rowing team at the Games of the XXI Olympiad in Montreal in 1976 while also studying for her law degree at Penn. She also receiving a Bronze Medal of the Olympic Order for her leadership role in fighting the U.S. government-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

Months after the 1980 Olympics, DeFranz was asked to join the Los Angeles Organizing Committee as a vice president to manage the Olympic Village at the University of Southern California. From there, DeFrantz served as the chief administrator for the Olympic Village for the 1988 and 1992 Summer Games. From 1989 to 1994 she served on the Summer Program Commission that determines what sports will be included in Olympic competition. She is credited with getting women's softball and soccer added to the Olympics.

DeFranz was first elected to the IOC Executive Board in 1992 and was re-elected to a full four-year term in September 1993. On Sept. 4, 1997, she became the first woman in the 103-year history of the IOC to be elected vice president. While her IOC involvement has grown over the years, DeFranz has remained closely connected to her first Olympics experience helping to shape the Games outside of the rowing scull.

Since 1987, DeFranz has served as president of the LA84 Foundation, originally known as the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, which was created in 1985 with surplus funds from the 1984 Summer Olympics to serve youth through sport and to increase knowledge of sport and its impact on people’s lives. Over its three decades of existence, the foundation has committed more than $197 million to support more than two million boys and girls and more than 1,000 youth sports organizations throughout Southern California.

As active as DeFranz is for amateur sports on the international level, so she is in the world of college athletics. She is a member of The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and is steward of the Women's Sports Foundation and has also served on the NCAA Leadership Advisory Committee.

The effect DeFranz has had on the Olympic ideal is immeasurable but it will certainly be felt in London as the next wave of athletes, many with Ivy League ties, strive to reach the pinnacle of amateur sports. And DeFranz will certainly be watching.