LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- LA84 Foundation President Anita DeFrantz has been elected to the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  DeFrantz was first elected to the IOC on October 17, 1986 and previously served on the Executive Board from 1992 to 1997. On September 4, 1997, she became the first woman in the history of the IOC to be elected vice president.

"Anita is a true leader with a comprehensive understanding of sport from its introduction to the elite level," said LA84 Foundation Board Chair Bob Graziano.  "We believe her work at the highest levels of the IOC is great news for Los Angeles as well as the Olympic Movement worldwide."

After being selected to compete on two US Olympic rowing teams (securing the bronze medal in the 1976 Montreal Games and leading the athletes' effort to oppose the US boycott of the 1980 Games in Moscow), DeFrantz has moved forward to serve on the leadership boards of dozens of organizations, institutes and federations, most notably the IOC, the U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors, the International Rowing Federation and the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 1984 Games. She has been honored by Los Angeles Magazine, Newsweek, NCAA, the Los Angeles Business Journal and Sports Illustrated (to name a few), and is recognized as one of the world's most influential women in sports and philanthropy.

"I am honored to once again serve in this capacity on the IOC, and I continue to be honored to serve as President of the LA84 Foundation which supports sports-related activities for young people throughout Southern California," she said.  The Foundation, established to manage Southern California's share of the surplus from the success 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, has invested $214 million in sports programs serving more than 2.5 million youth in the eight Southern California counties of Los Angeles, Imperial, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

SOURCE LA84 Foundation