The acclaimed Anita

Despite her past as an Olympic medallist and continued involvement in rowing, De Frantz does not get to row much now. It is difficult to fit into her lifestyle which demands regular trips around the United States and the world as she deals with one of her extensive list of roles. 

The list is not just extensive, it is impressive and her involvement is often marked a first – a first as a woman or as an African American. It includes a large number of roles on the International Olympic Committee. There are also US Olympic Committee roles, the Women’s Sports Foundation, a member of the Académie des Sports in France and, of course, as the vice-president of the International Rowing Federation, FISA (since 1993).

On top of this, awards coming from around the globe have literally showered on De Frantz and it would be fair to say if there was an award for the most awarded woman, De Frantz would probably get it. To sample just a few, there is the Olympic Order in bronze, Olympic Torch Award, Silver Achievement Award for Public Service, Black Women of Achievement Award. De Frantz has been named one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Sports” by The Sporting News for nine consecutive years, “The 20 Most Powerful Women in Sport” by SportsPro Magazine, “The 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America” by the Institute for International Sport, “NCAA’s 100 Most Influential Student-Athletes”, and one of “The 100 Most Powerful Women in The World, by The Australian Magazine.

De Frantz has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates from American universities, the Abby J. Leibman Pursuit of Justice Award, the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame and the Minerva Award, “Fair Play Gaio Cilnio Mecenate.” The list goes on.

So how did one individual get to this position in life?

De Frantz was born in Philadelphia (1952) into a world where, not only did women and competitive sport not mix, but even less so as an African American. Growing up, De Frantz says there were no sporting opportunities for girls. “I had three brothers and they did sports so I didn’t know why I couldn’t take part,” says De Frantz.

Growing up with a mother who blazed a trail by earning a doctorate and eventually becoming a professor and a father who ran an organisation called Community Action Against Poverty, De Frantz was influenced by their struggles and their civil rights activities.

These struggles were also part of De Frantz’s rich heritage. Her great, great, great grandfather was a plantation owner who had a son to a female servant. This son, Alonso, was an Exoduster leader (a group of African Americans who fled the South due to fears that slavery may be reintroduced). Alonso married a native American Indian (of the Creek Nation) adding another dimension to De Frantz’s heritage. De Frantz was quoted as saying that from the knowledge of her past “…[and] what I’ve faced in my own life, led me to care about other people.”

It took until College and “being far from home and away from parental influence” for De Frantz to discover a level of choice that allowed her to start rowing. “I got told (by College rowing coach Bart Gulong) I’d be perfect for rowing. I’m 5’11,” says De Frantz. “I loved being on the water and in a team and it was a sport where you did no harm to anyone else.”

After graduating with honours in political philosophy, De Frantz went on to study law at the University of Pennsylvania where she knew there was a rowing club. “I figured it [law] was the language of power and I wanted to have access to that power.”

By 1975 De Frantz was on the US national team and in 1976 she went to the first Olympic Games that included women’s rowing, finishing third in the women’s eight. De Frantz continued in the sport with the aim of competing in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, USSR.

The United States’ decision by President Jimmy Carter to boycott the 1980 Games would change De Frantz’s life forever. De Frantz knew from her legal background that the United States Olympic Committee, USOC, had the legal right to send athletes to the Games and De Frantz decided to push this fact. She became the front person of athletes asking for the USOC to go against the boycott. Many members of the public saw De Frantz’s stand as being unpatriotic.

“It was very frightening during that time with all of the hate mail I was receiving,” says De Frantz. “But I always knew that I was right. There was a time when I thought I’d never get a job again.” De Frantz says the experience, however, did not make her shy away from future stands. “I have a sense of fairness and if I think something is not fair I’m going to work to make it fair.” 

Neither De Frantz, nor any American athlete got to go to the Moscow Olympics.

Fifteen years later De Frantz got to meet Jimmy Carter in person. “I told him my greatest and only regret was that I never had a chance to meet directly with him and I thought that if I had met with him I could have explained why it was so important for us to go [to the 1980 Olympics].” In 1996 De Frantz was seated next to Carter at a luncheon.  “At one point he turned to me and said, ‘when are you going to stop beating me up?’”

Asking De Frantz what award or medal she is most proud of, De Frantz pauses for a long time. She draws a breath and then replies, “The medal of the Olympic Order that was awarded in Moscow. But,” she adds, “I would have preferred to win a medal in Moscow.”