The International Olympic Committee is the ultimate old-boys club. Think U.S. senators without those annoying elections. For years, IOC meetings were kept short because so many of the largely white, 70- and 80-year-old Lords of the Rings kept dozing off.

	Anita DeFrantz, far right, shown with cyclist Connie Paraskevin-Young, left, and swimmer Samantha Riley, has the experience needed to be IOC president. Part of that experience at Salt Lake City could turn out to be a liability.

So why, really, would a vital 48-year-old African-American woman want to hang out with these doddering codgers, much less be their president? Anita DeFrantz, the United States Olympic Committee's ranking IOC member, will be more than happy to give you a detailed answer.

"Why?" DeFrantz asked deliberately. "I have hung out with those guys since 1986 and those guys and their predecessors gave me and so many athletes an opportunity to become an Olympian. When I entered the [Montreal] village in 1976, I entered an incredible world, a world where people respected one another.

"That told me the world could be at peace. And I wanted to make certain that this notion of peace – that is one of the fundamental principles of the Olympic movement – is something that endures. We can work toward a world at peace."

It was a tactful answer to a tacky question, appropriately presidential in pitch. With the imminent retirement of Juan Antonio Samaranch – after raising the age limit three times, the 80-year-old Spaniard is finally stepping aside following nearly 21 years as IOC president – DeFrantz announced her candidacy last week.

Assessing the race

Neither Canada's Dick Pound or Jacques Rogge of Belgium, the co-favorites to follow Juan Antonio Samaranch as IOC president, have formally declared their candidacy. So, how long will they remain undecided? "Undecided?" Pound asked Tuesday. "I think unannounced is more true." We'll take that as a yes. Pound, Rogge, Anita DeFrantz of the United States and all other candidates – South Korea's Kim Un Yong is the third big name expected to influence the race – have until April 10 to announce their candidacies. The vote by secret electronic ballot will be conducted July 16 in Moscow. So who will it be? Pound and Rogge, both 58, have earned their IOC stripes. Pound, who has chaired many important IOC committees, has handled numerous unpleasant details for Samaranch over the years, including the expulsion of 10 IOC members. He also is the chief of the world anti-doping agency. Rogge has overseen the IOC coordination of the Sydney and Athens Summer Games. The well-connected Un Yong, who will turn 70 next month, might be too old for the post but his support is seen as crucial. Will the Salt Lake scandal hurt DeFrantz? "It's hard to say," Pound said. "We've done our surgery [10 IOC members have resigned or were expelled and two more could soon join that list] and I think the scars are losing some of their pinkness. I rather hope the surgery, plus the reforms, plus the presence of an independent ethics commission ought to help us all put it behind us. "We've been pretty careful with all IOC members, we don't respond to an accusation or a rumor. So far, that's all we're dealing with here. The trial is important to the United States, but it does not travel well as a major story." The IOC election process is one of elimination. The candidate who receives the fewest votes in each round is eliminated from the ballot before the next round. One scenario that would help DeFrantz is a deadlock between Pound, Rogge and, perhaps, Un Yong. "With two Europeans going head to head, who knows what could happen?" says Jim Easton, a U.S. member of the IOC. "There could be a surprise finish. I would support her in it. It would be a great move for the IOC to do it, but I don't know what my fellow members are thinking." -- Greg Garber

DeFrantz, a bronze-medal-winning rower who led the athletes' fight against the United States boycott of the 1980 Olympics, has become, certifiably, one of them. She is a first vice president of the IOC, the first woman to hold that position in the institution's 107-year history. DeFrantz and Pal Schmitt of Hungary are the only declared candidates, but several front-runners are expected to be announced before the April 10 deadline. The IOC's 123 members will vote on July 16 in Moscow.

A matter of timing
By most accounts, DeFrantz is the longest of shots. People in and around the IOC say that her age, gender and nationality will work against her. Moreover, the taint of the Salt Lake City bid scandal, which occurred under her watch as America's senior IOC official, as well as her overbearing personality and her sometimes alarming lapses in judgment already may have undermined DeFrantz's candidacy.

One ranking IOC member noted that in Senegal the cynical media in attendance had the over-under for DeFrantz's vote total pegged at one. "She is young," he said. "There's a lot of movement, but not a lot of horsepower there. If she was well advised, she'd step back and run eight years from now. You don't want to be seen as running every time out. And she is an American, and with Salt Lake, that is not a good thing to be right now."

Is the timing bad?

"Well, yes, but who knows?" said Jim Easton, a USOC and IOC member. "What happens if you don't take the shot? I don't think it will hurt her down the road. I think she felt as first vice president it was a logical move. She has a chance, so she's going to give it a try."

Bob Ctvrtlik, who played for three U.S. Olympic volleyball teams, is part of the effort to include more athletes on the IOC. Already a member of the USOC, he was elected to the IOC in 1999.

"I kind of took a deep breath when she announced," Ctvrtlik said. "My first question to her was 'Have you felt around for support? Do you think you have a realistic shot?' "

"It caught a lot of people by surprise. She's a very bold person. Just personally, I would have gotten a little bit more of a feel for the support out there. I don't know whether she feels if she can win or not. Sometimes, I guess, you make strides in the effort."

So, is the IOC ready for Anita DeFrantz?

"I think the answer will be given on July 16," DeFrantz said. "I have moved through the ranks. I was elected to the IOC executive board, I was elected a vice president. I'm respected by my colleagues in my work here at the Amateur Foundation. I've shown I can manage a major institution successfully.

"I'm vice president of an international [rowing] federation, the noblest from sports. I'm a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. And I did that while training for the Olympic Games. It shows I can handle multi-tasking, as we like to call it.

"It shows I can do it."

There has not been a major U.S. candidate for the job since Avery Brundage stepped down as IOC president in 1972 after a 20-year reign.

"I'm a person that feels she would do a good job – and I'm a white male," said Bill Hybl, a member of both the USOC and the IOC. "In my view, she has acquitted herself well and demonstrated leadership ability.

"But, certainly, it is going to be an uphill effort for Anita."

But is she more than just a long shot?

"Yes," DeFrantz, the former rower, answered. "Any time I was on the starting line for a race, I knew that by the time I got to the finish line, I was either going to win or lose. That's what it is in any race, 50-50."

A swift ascent
She had never seriously pulled an oar when she arrived at Connecticut College in 1971, but five years later she was a member of the women's eight that took a bronze medal in Montreal. DeFrantz was a fierce opponent of Jimmy Carter's 1980 U.S. boycott after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the experience seems to have whetted her appetite for international politics. Her resume is, quite frankly, astounding.

As a vice president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984, she was charged with operating the Olympic Village at the University of Southern California. Two years later, she was elected to the IOC and has risen swiftly to a variety of leadership positions. Today, as the president of the AAFLA, she oversees the legacy of the 1984 Olympics. The organization has an endowment approaching $200 million and shares its proceeds with the community through grants and programs.

When Samaranch, suffering from a cold, missed the opening session in Senegal, DeFrantz ran the executive board meeting for him – to mixed reviews. She labored through a speech in French, the official language of Senegal and one of the IOC's two official languages. Witnesses say she appeared to smile and gesture as though she understood what was being said by others in French, without wearing headphones that would have afforded her a translation of a language in which she is not fluent.

"It was a great experience," DeFrantz said. "It was a surprise experience. No one except Juan Antonio has run that board for nearly 21 years. It was a little bit daunting because he's had 21 years of doing it. I was stepping in with about 21 hours of experience."

Several IOC members pointed to her performance as an example of her lack of political savvy. The Salt Lake City bribery scandal, however, might have permanently damaged her credibility. As America's senior IOC official and a member of the board of the Salt Lake City bid committee that secured the 2002 Winter Olympics, DeFrantz fell under scrutiny when it was discovered that numerous IOC members received lavish gifts and services in an attempt to influence their decision.

DeFrantz, who acknowledges accepting "a personal gift," a gold and garnet necklace, in 1990 from the wife of a member of Nagano's bid for the 1998 Olympics, was never implicated in any wrongdoing in Salt Lake City. Dave Johnson, one of the two Salt Lake bid executives indicted on bribery charges, has alleged that DeFrantz knew everything about the inducements. DeFrantz denies the charge, and said she does not believe the baggage from Salt Lake will hurt her bid for the presidency.

"I am not Salt Lake," she said. "I am Anita DeFrantz, a rower, on behalf of the Olympic movement. I've been a member of the USOC since 1976, elected to IOC in 1986, elected to executive board of the IOC in 1992."

But when asked about Johnson's allegations, a question she is likely to hear again, there was a long pause. A good 20 seconds passed. She sighed, started several sentences, then stopped.

It's a question that will be asked increasingly in the next several months.

"Yeah," she said, "you can also ask about what I've done in the IOC and in my community. You can ask a lot of other questions. Ask if the committee did any investigation of me."

There was another pause.

"I'm sorry," she said. "It's just – I mean, I do understand you have to ask certain questions."

Even Easton, an ally who says he would support DeFrantz for president, believes Salt Lake will cast a long shadow.

"There's a little taint against America, perceived by the IOC," he said. "That's got to be a factor."

The timing of the federal trial of Johnson and Tom Welch, set to begin in early June, doesn't work to DeFrantz's advantage. She could be called as a witness and there will be questions of the Iran-Contra variety.

And beyond the Salt Lake scandal, DeFrantz has hurt herself politically in other ways.

In December, DeFrantz made a splash by insisting that Hybl, the former USOC president, should give up his IOC seat to Sandy Baldwin, the current president. Samaranch quickly ended that initiative.

Later that same month, DeFrantz insulted new athletic members of the IOC, subjecting them to a history quiz at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. Russian pole vaulter Sergei Bubka and former German rower Roland Baar were among those athletes who publicly vented their anger. Baar described it as "an affront" and an attempt "to turn back the democratization process."

DeFrantz said her goal was to inform the new IOC members, not insult them. A planned one-hour orientation was cut to 15 minutes, DeFrantz said, and something got lost in the translation. "I apologized," she said. "What else can I say?"

A new direction?
In one sense, DeFrantz's timing is good.

In the wake of the Salt Lake scandal and Samaranch's retirement there is a spirit of reform surrounding the IOC. There have been seven presidents of the IOC and all of them have been white, European men. DeFrantz would shatter that mold and send a powerful message.

"Sometimes you wonder how far you can go with that," Ctvrtlik observed. "At the same time, you're a woman in a male-dominated environment and a minority, too. I can't even imagine putting myself in that perspective."

Ctvrtlik diplomatically agreed with a widespread belief that DeFrantz doesn't seem to understand her place in the complex food chain of the IOC. He offered this example:

"In Lausanne, we voted to put the first athlete on the executive board. One of them was Norway's Johann Olav Koss, the speed skater. He felt he might win, and he was last among three. He got something like nine votes, while Sergei Bubka got nearly 50. Going in, he felt like he might win.

"I think he felt like if he ran and won or ran and lost it would still be a positive. After watching him deal with the disappointment, I don't think it will be a positive. Now, maybe people look at him like he's a tier down. I'm hoping that doesn't happen to Anita."

DeFrantz said she will attempt to speak personally to her 122 IOC colleagues in the coming months to explain her platform and listen to their concerns for the future. IOC and USOC members take pains to say nice things about DeFrantz on the record. Samaranch himself said that "she can be a good candidate."

Certainly, her candidacy lends a certain gloss to the process; with only 12 women members (less than 10 percent), the IOC does not reflect the world around it. The illusion of inclusion mitigates criticism that the organization does not promote women and, in the eyes of some, also represents an olive branch extended toward Africa, where many officials were named in the Salt Lake scandal.

Race, a divisive issue in so many circumstances, appears to be one of the factors that won't work against DeFrantz.

DeFrantz's announcement came on the day she toured Ile de Goree, a volcanic island off Dakar's coast that served for centuries as the departure point for millions of Africans bound into slavery and shipped off to the New World.

"I haven't figured out one word to sum up the experience," she said. "To stand where so many people died before they became slaves, well, it was more than moving."

On a symbolic level, DeFrantz's candidacy is about breaking chains and setting precedents.

"I've served the Olympic movement," she said. "I'm ready now. My skills are perfect for the Olympic movement. We need someone who can work with all aspects of the Olympic movement.

"This is who I've been all my life."