Anita DeFrantz addresses the media during an IOC news conference ahead of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games on Feb. 11, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles 2024 today named US IOC Executive Board member and Olympian Anita DeFrantz as the Candidature Committee’s Senior Advisor for Legacy. DeFrantz, who recently retired from her long-held role as president of the LA84 Foundation, will work with LA 2024 to envision and assess how a potential Los Angeles 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games could serve to benefit the next generation of Angelenos long after 2024.
Before she joined the ranks of the IOC, DeFrantz captained the US 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. In 1987, DeFrantz began her 28-year role stewarding the legacy of Los Angeles’ 1984 Games as president of the LA84 Foundation, which received 40% of the 1984 Games’ 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 continues to provide Los Angeles youth with recreation and sports opportunities today.
DeFrantz will be honored tonight by Mayor Eric Garcetti and other civic and community leaders at a reception celebrating her leadership and achievements as the president of the LA84 Foundation.
In her new volunteer role, DeFrantz will advise LA 2024 on how a 2024 Games could potentially build on LA84’s success and create additional legacy benefits for the city beyond 2024.
US IOC Executive Board Member and LA 2024 Senior Advisor Anita DeFrantz said: “In my 28 years as president of the LA84 Foundation, we served youth through sports and enhanced the knowledge of sport in society. From our operation of the largest sports research library in North America to our recent unveiling of the first phase of a major renovation to the city’s largest soccer facility, the 26-acre Ferraro Fields soccer complex at Griffith Park, the LA84 Foundation’s work is living proof of the type of Olympic legacy that is possible for a city. I am excited to have the chance to build a new Olympic legacy for Los Angeles with the LA 2024 Candidature Committee.”
LA 2024 Chairman Casey Wasserman said: “Anita has already been an important member of our team, and we are proud to welcome her to this new critical role. Thanks to Anita’s leadership, the LA 1984 Games set a new standard for putting Olympic Legacy into action, and our team will benefit tremendously from her expertise and years of experience serving our city and the Olympic Movement. Her dedication to the values of the Olympic Movement have and will continue to serve as an inspiration to us all as we work to bring the Games back to the United States for the first time in 28 years.
“The IOC’s visionary Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations make clear that the Olympic Games need to provide athletes with the optimal Games experience while leaving a long-term legacy that benefits a city. Given these recommendations, we are convinced that Los Angeles could be the perfect partner for the Olympic Movement at this time.”
The city of LA continues to benefit from the positive effects of the LA84 Foundation; just last November, new grants totaling $771,758 were announced by the Foundation, which will fund 30 athletic programs and serve 24,000 children in LA and the wider Southern California area.