Defrantz and biography

Penn People

Anita Lucette DeFrantz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 4, 1952. After growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana, she majored in philosophy at Connecticut College, graduating in 1974. Three years later she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a law degree.

While a young girl, DeFrantz began her athletic career as a member of a swim team at a local park. At Connecticut College, since she was almost six feet tall, she tried out for basketball and made the team, even though she did not know how to play the game. It wasn’t until her sophomore year that she discovered rowing and knew she had found her sport. Four years later, after she had begun her study of law at Penn, she competed at the 1976 Montreal Olympics as a member of the U.S. women’s eight-oared shell. They came in third, providing DeFrantz with a bronze medal.

Anita DeFrantz was convinced, however, that she could do better and was determined to try for the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 1978 World Championships and was a United States National Champion six times. When Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan led the United States to boycott the 1980 Olympics, DeFrantz was extremely disappointed and filed a lawsuit based upon her conviction that it was the athlete’s choice to compete and no one could force an athlete to go or not go to the Olympics. She lost the lawsuit but she received a medal for her efforts from the International Olympic Committee.

Immediately after law school, DeFrantz worked as an attorney in a juvenile law center. But, even after she ceased to compete as an Olympic rower, the Olympics became the center of her professional life. She has worked to shape the Olympic experience so that it promotes pure and clean sports; she has done this, not as an outside critic, but as a part of Olympic organizations at the national and international level.

De Frantz has been a

Biography

DeFrantz believes in our shared capacity to do better and engage creative spirit for a collective good that is anti-racist, proto-feminist, and queer affirming. Creative Projects include Queer Theory! An Academic Travesty commissioned by the Theater Offensive of Boston and the Flynn Center for the Arts; fastDANCEpast, created for the Detroit Institute for the Arts; reVERSE-gesture-reVIEW commissioned by the Nasher Museum in response to the work of Kara Walker. Books: Dance History(s): Imagination as a Form of Study (with Annie B. Parson, 2024) Routledge Companion to African American Theater and Performance (with Kathy Perkins, Sandra Richards, and Renee Alexander Craft, 2018), Choreography and Corporeality: Relay in Motion (with Philipa Rothfield, 2016), Black Performance Theory: An Anthology of Critical Readings (with Anita Gonzalez, 2014), Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (2002), and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (2004). 

DeFrantz convenes the Black Performance Theory working group as well as the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, a growing consortium of 325 researchers committed to exploring Black dance practices in writing. Teaching assignments include University of the Arts Mobile MFA in Dance; ImPulsTanz; New Waves Institute; Juilliard; SNDO; P.A.R.T.S.; Movement Research; Lion’s Jaw; Fresh Festival; and faculty at Hampshire College, Juilliard, Stanford, Yale, MIT, NYU, Northwestern University, the University of Nice. DeFrantz consults often with dance programs around the globe, and has helped artists and educators rethink how critical studies are entirely foundational to the making of an engaged artist. DeFrantz has chaired the Program in Women’s

American rower

Anita Lucette DeFrantz (born October 4, 1952) is an American Olympic rower, member of the International Olympic Committee, and twice vice-president of International Rowing Federation (FISA).

Biography

DeFrantz was born on October 4, 1952, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A member of the Vesper Boat Club in her home city, she was captain of the American rowing team at the 1976 Summer Olympics winning the bronze medal in women's eight. In 1980, the United States boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR: DeFrantz qualified as part of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, but she was unable to compete. She was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal.

Board member

In 1986, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) appointed DeFrantz to membership in the organization. She became the first chair of the prototype of the IOC Women in Sport Commission in 1992, and the first female vice-president of the IOC executive committee in 1997, serving until 2001. On June 25, 2012, DeFrantz told AroundTheRings.com that she would like to return to the IOC Executive Committee. She was elected back onto the IOC Executive Board on September 10, 2013, and she was elected to a four-year term as IOC Vice President at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru on September 15, 2017.

DeFrantz is also on the board of the Al Oerter Foundation (AOF) which runs the Art of the Olympians (AOTO) program which is an international organization of Olympian and Paralympian artists promoting the Olympic values and ideals through educational and cultural programs and exhibitions.

Honors

In 1980, DeFrantz was awarded the Olympic Order for her contributions to the Olympic Movement. In 2017, a plaque honoring her was unveiled in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum's Court of Honor.

References

Olympian + Author + Speaker ANITA L. DEFRANTZ http://anitadefrantz.net/ is the seventh ranking member in seniority of the International Olympic Committee and a member of the IOC Executive Board. She serves on the Juridical Commission of the IOC, which is made up of lawyers, and on the Finance Commission, which reviews the investments and spending plans. Before she joined the ranks of the IOC, DeFrantz captained the U.S. women’s rowing team and rowed in the eight that won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. DeFrantz served as Vice President of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and was elected to IOC membership in 1986, making her not only the first African-American but also the first American woman to serve on the committee. In 1987, DeFrantz began her 28-year role stewarding the legacy of 1984 LA Games as president of the LA84 Foundation, which received 40% of the 1984 proceeds. Over the past 30 years, the LA84 Foundation has invested more than $225 million to support more than 2,000 youth sports organizations, and it continues to provide Los Angeles youth with recreation and sports opportunities. In 1992, she was named a member of the IOC Executive Board. In 1997, she became the organization’s first female vice president, a position she held until 2001. From 1989-1994 she served on the IOC’s Summer Program Commission, which determines which sports will be included in Olympic competition. In 1995, she became chair of the IOC’s Women and Sports Commission. She is credited with getting women’s softball and soccer added to the Olympic ticket. Currently, she is president of the Tubman Truth Corp., an organization working to provide liberty and justice for all people. She also serves on LA 2024, the Los Angeles bid committee for the 2024 summer Olympic Games, as the LA 2024 Senior Adviser for Legacy. DeFrantz has B.A. from Connecticut College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She holds honorary doctorate degrees