The 60-year-old from Philadelphia is one of the longest serving IOC members, having joined the organisation 27 years ago back in 1986.

During that time, DeFrantz served on the IOC Executive Board from 1992 until 2001, including as vice-president for the last four years - the first time a female had held such a high position within the Olympic Movement.

She was the only woman candidate when Juan Antonio Samaranch stepped down as IOC President 12 years, but was the first of the five candidates to be eliminated, polling only nine of the 107 votes as Jacques Rogge won the election.

But she claimed she is hopeful that she will regain her place on the Executive Board.

"It feels like a like a long way off between now and the IOC Session in Buenos Aires when I will run for a seat on the Executive Board," DeFrantz told insidethegames here on the eve of the SportAccord International Convention.

"But I hope when the time comes, my IOC colleagues will be willing and able to vote for me.

"Having served as an IOC member for 27 years, I feel that I still have a great deal to offer.

"Therefore I am hopeful that I can once again take responsibility at the executive level of this organisation."


DeFrantz had previously announced her intention to run for an Executive Board seat during the IOC Session in London in July last year but she withdrew her candidacy on the eve of the vote, admitted she had "not done the groundwork to have a winning outcome".

The former, winner of an Olympic bronze medal in the women's eight at Montreal 1976, is confident she can secure success this time around with the right amount of campaigning.

"It feels better this time around," said DeFrantz.

"People know I have been serious about all my work.

"The work of women in sport has come to a very important point and we are now at the point where we move forward."

At present, it remains uncertain how many candidates will be drawn to run for an IOC Executive Board seat in September, with DeFrantz currently the only one to have publicly announced her intention to stand.

Rogge will step down at the Session in Buenos Aires on September 10 with Germany's Thomas Bach, Singapore's Ng Ser Miang, Richard Carrión of Puerto Rico, C K Wu of Taiwan and Denis Oswald of Switzerland having announced themselves as the five candidates that will stand to replace him.

Ukraine's Sergey Bubka is also set to stand in what could be a six-horse race and DeFrantz predicted an open race.

"The people who put their name forward really need to be ready because the IOC Presidency is not for the faint of heart," she said.

"They really need to believe in the Olympic Movement and everything that it stands for.

"We live in a fast-changing world with lots of different problems and the new President must be ready to tackle them head on.

"On a personal level, I need to know how a person makes decisions and what their reflex is for making decisions before I vote for them.

"That is very important because the new President will have some huge decisions to make so I will need to look carefully at the overall package they are offering before I make a decision and I think it will be the same for many of my colleagues in the IOC."

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