(ATR) Senior U.S. IOC member Anita DeFrantz tells Around the Rings she is eager to return to the Executive Board.
DeFrantz wrote to her colleagues last week to declare her candidacy for one of three seats on the ruling EB up for election in July at the IOC Session in London.
"I’m going to take the dive and see how I do. I’m happy to present my credentials yet again to my colleagues," DeFrantz told ATR from Lausanne last week where she attended a meeting of the Finance Commission.
DeFrantz, 59, served two terms on the EB, ending in 2001 when she made an unsuccessful run for the IOC presidency. An Olympian in rowing, DeFrantz joined the IOC in 1986 after working on the Los Angeles Olympics. She can serve until age 80.
"I have a perspective that I think is useful. I’m an Olympian. I’m someone who is involved with athletes in their right to compete. I have experience as an administrator. I have a lot to offer," she says.
DeFrantz says the time may be right for her EB run. She says a new revenue sharing agreement between the IOC and U.S. could be a positive for campaign.
"We’ve solved our problems with the IOC, I believe," she says.
DeFrantz, as is customary among candidates for the EB and vice president, is circulating a low-key, two-page letter to her 100+ IOC colleagues to solicit their support.
"For someone who’s been around for 26 years I think I have a great deal to offer and I hope I can convince my colleagues to vote for me," she tells ATR.
DeFrantz notes that the only current member from the Americas, Richard Carrion, leaves the EB this year having served a two-term limit, making the timing right for a candidate from the region.
DeFrantz would have one rival from the hemisphere at the London Session, Guatemala’s Willy Kaltschmitt, who along with DeFrantz, make up the five contenders so far for the three open EB seats. Others in the running include Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. and Nat Indrapana of Thailand.
Four other seats on the EB up for election in London are set aside for nominated representatives of NOCs, the Summer and Winter Olympic federations and the IOC Athletes Commission.
The election will take place July 26, thelast day of the IOC Session. The candidates will stand for each seat, a majority of members needed to elect a winner. Candidates not chosen for a one seat can run for the next seat to be elected.
Two vice presidential seats will be elected in July – both with one candidate each so far. Nawal el Moutawakel of Morocco will leave her regular EB seat to for one of the vp slots, while Craig Reedie of the U.K. will leave his EB seat to run for the second vice presidency.
Zaiqing Yu of China steps down after two terms on the EB while Mario Pescante from Italy resigned from his seat earlier this year.
Leaving the EB at the end of the year is Summer federations rep Denis Oswald, to be replaced by boxing federation chief C.K. Wu.
European Olympic Committees President Patrick Hickey is the ANOC nominee to take the EB seat held by Mario Vazquez Rana until his resignation in March.
Athletes Commission chair Frank Fredericks steps down from that earmarked EB seat this year after completing his eight-year term on the commission.
Written and reported by Ed Hula
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