leader (a group of African Americans who
fled the South due to fears that slavery may be
reintroduced). Alonso married a native American
Indian (of the Creek Nation) adding another
dimension to De Frantz’s heritage. De Frantz
was quoted as saying that from the knowledge
of her past “...[and] what I’ve faced in my own life,
led me to care about other people.”
>
The United States’ decision by President Jimmy
Carter to boycott the 1980 Games would change
De Frantz’s life forever. De Frantz knew from her
legal background that the United States Olympic
Committee, USOC, had the legal right to send
athletes to the Games and De Frantz decided
to push this fact. She became the front person
of athletes asking for the USOC to go against
the boycott. Many members of the public saw
De Frantz’s stand as being unpatriotic.
Fifteen years later De Frantz got to meet
Jimmy Carter in person. “I told him my greatest
and only regret was that I never had a chance to
meet directly with him and I thought that if I had
met with him I could have explained why it was
so important for us to go [to the 1980 Olympics].”
In 1996 De Frantz was seated next to Carter at
a luncheon. “At one point he turned to me and
said, ‘when are you going to stop beating me up?’”
It took until College and “being far from home
and away from parental influence” for De Frantz
to discover a level of choice that allowed her to
start rowing. “I got told (by College rowing coach
Bart Gulong) I’d be perfect for rowing. I’m 5’ 11,”
says De Frantz. “I loved being on the water and in
a team and it was a sport where you did no harm
to anyone else.”
“It was very frightening during that time with all
of the hate mail I was receiving,” says De Frantz.
“But I always knew that I was right. There was a
time when I thought I’d never get a job again.”
De Frantz says the experience, however, did not
make her shy away from future stands. “I have a
sense of fairness and if I think something is not
fair I’m going to work to make it fair.”
Asking De Frantz what award or medal she is most
proud of, De Frantz pauses for a long time. She
draws a breath and then replies, “The medal of
the Olympic Order that was awarded in Moscow.
But,” she adds, “I would have preferred to win a
medal in Moscow.”
After graduating with honours in political
philosophy, De Frantz went on to study law at
the University of Pennsylvania where she knew
there was a rowing club. “I figured it [law] was the
language of power and I wanted to have access
to that power.”
Neither De Frantz, nor
any American athlete got
to go to the Moscow
Olympics.
By 1975 De Frantz was on the US national
team and in 1976 she went to the first
Olympic Games that included women’s
rowing, finishing third in the women’s eight.
De Frantz continued in the sport with the
aim of competing in the 1980 Olympic Games
in Moscow, USSR.
Issue 17 – August 2011
© Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
