Athletes: Anita DeFrantz

Anita DeFrantz (1954-present) captained the U.S. women’s rowing team and was part of the team that won a bronze medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games – the first games where women’s rowing was introduced. After her athletic career, she went on to become the first African American — and first American woman — to represent the U.S. on the International Olympic Committee.

For Further Reading:

• My Olympic Life
• Former Olympian Anita DeFrantz Continues to Serve as an Advocate for Athletes
• Anita L. DeFrantz, America’s powerful Olympic presence

This month we're celebrating the women who performed physical and mental feats in sports. They overcame societal barriers, personal struggles, and fierce competition to pursue their dreams of glory. We're talking about Athletes.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
For Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
This month were celebrating women who performed physical and mental
feats in sports. They overcame societal barriers, personal struggles, and
fierce competition to pursue dreams of glory.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're talking about athletes.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Today's Womaniquin has been called the most powerful woman in
sports after leading the US women's rowing team to a
bronze medal the very first year women were allowed to
row in the Olympics. She went on to become an
advocate for fairness in sports. Please meet Anita de France.
Anita was born on October fourth, nineteen fifty two in Philadelphia.

(00:44):
She spent many of her formative years in Indianapolis, Indiana.
It was the height of the Civil Rights movement, and
Anita's parents instilled its values in their daughter.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
They taught her the importance of using her voice as
a black woman.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Growing up, Anita was more focused on academics than sports.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
She attended an.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
All girls high school where there weren't any sports programs.
After graduation, she went to Connecticut College. There, she was
sophomore class president, chairman of the student Judiciary Committee. Her
junior year author of a student bill of rights, and
during her senior year a house fellow who supervised dorm residents.
She still found time to try out this new and

(01:25):
exciting sport, rowing. She liked how it encouraged teamwork. Meanwhile,
across the Atlantic Ocean, the International Olympic Committee met in Munich.
They decided to debut six women's events at the nineteen
seventy six Olympic Games in Montreal. It was a decision
that would change Anita's life. After Connecticut College, Anita went

(01:47):
to law school at the University of Pennsylvania. In between
exams and late night study sessions, she continued to row.
In nineteen seventy five, she joined and captained the United
States rowing team, and a night teen seventy six, she
rode in the first ever US women's rowing team at
the Olympic Games.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Anita helped lead.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Her eight woman team to a bronze medal. She hoped
to return to the Olympics again in nineteen eighty and
go for the gold, but America had other plans. In
December of nineteen seventy nine, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
As a consequence, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United
States would be boycotting the nineteen eighty Olympic Games in Moscow, and.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
I have notified the Olympic Committee that with Soviet invading
forces in Afghanistan, neither the American people nor I will
support sending an Olympic team to Moscow.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
More than sixty other nations followed suit. While some countries
allowed their athletes to decide whether or not they wanted
to compete, the US did not. Anita's hopes to compete
were dashed, so she sued the US Olympic Committee. The
case was eventually thrown out, and Anita didn't make it
back to the Olympics to compete, but her involved in

(03:00):
the Games didn't stop. In nineteen eighty six, she was
elected to the International Olympic Committee or IOC, the global
organization that coordinates the Olympic Games. She became the first
woman and the first African American to represent the US
on the committee. In nineteen eighty seven, Anita became president
of the LA eighty four Foundation, the organization which was

(03:24):
formed to manage Southern California's endowment from the nineteen eighty
four Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Invests in local youth sports.
She served as president for twenty eight years until twenty fifteen.
In nineteen ninety five, Anita became the IOC's chair of
the Woman in Sport Commission. Then she became the organization's

(03:44):
first female Vice president. Anita is dedicated to increasing opportunity
and access for athletes, and she's made great strides. Anita
played a key role in getting women's softball and soccer
accepted on the Olympic program, contributed to a big boost
in women's involvement in the Olympics at large. During the

(04:04):
nineteen eighty eight Olympics, the first to happen while Anita
was part of the IOC, women made up just over
twenty six percent of competing athletes. By the twenty twenty
Tokyo Olympics, that number had climbed to forty seven point
eight percent.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Today, Anita is still a member.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Of the IOC, and she still uses her legal skills
as a member of their Legal Affairs Commission. She also
serves on LA twenty twenty eight, the Los Angeles organizing
Committee for the twenty twenty eight Summer Olympic Games. All month,
we've been talking about athletes for more information, find us
on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to

(04:45):
Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Tune in
tomorrow for the start of a brand new theme.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Talk to you then,