July is Disability Pride Month, and July 26 marks 36 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law. This year's theme, chosen by disabled self-advocates, says it plainly: "The World Works Better With Us." 

Access is not a courtesy; it is a right. I have spent my life arguing that sport belongs to everyone, and "everyone" has no asterisk. The Paralympic Games show us athletes at the very height of their craft, and they deserve the same lights, the same crowds, and the same respect we give every Olympian.

That is why it moves me that Los Angeles will host its first ever Paralympic Games in 2028. When a young person sees an athlete who moves through the world as they do, standing on a podium, something shifts; the boundary of what feels possible moves outward. 🌟💙

How will you mark Disability Pride Month? Tell me about a Paralympian or an adaptive sports program that has inspired you!

#DisabilityPrideMonth #ADA36 #Paralympics #SportBelongsToEveryone #TheWorldWorksBetterWithUs #LA28 #AdaptiveSports #Inclusion #DisabilityPride #ParaSport #AccessIsARight #TeamUSA #ParalympicMovement #EqualityInSport #Belonging

A year ago this month, the International Olympic Committee welcomed a new president, and an Olympian rose to lead the movement she has given her life to. I have watched this first year less for its symbolism than for its substance; the question I keep asking is what has actually changed for the athletes. The answer, I am glad to say, is real. 

Consider how the year opened. In February, the Olympic Winter Games arrived in Milano Cortina, the first Games of this presidency. To deliver a Games at all is to hold a thousand moving parts steady at once, under the eyes of the world; to deliver one well, in a first year, is the mark of someone who has learned how to perform when it counts. The athletes shone, the venues held, the world gathered. That is no small thing, and it set the tone for what followed.

Then, a clear sign came this June in Lausanne. For the first time in our history, every Olympian, not only the medalists, will be eligible for direct support: a grant to honor the years of work it takes simply to reach the Games. A fund of $140 million has been set aside for each Olympic cycle, beginning with the athletes of Milano Cortina. This is not prize money; it is recognition, and it reaches the athlete who finished last as surely as the champion who finished first. That is the point.

It sits inside a broader effort called "Fit for the Future," built by listening: to athletes, to smaller nations, to anyone who has felt the Games drifting out of reach. The work turns also to how host cities are chosen and how the Games are delivered, so the dream of hosting stays open to more of the world, not less. Sport belongs to everyone; leadership that keeps proving it is worth celebrating. 

Then, there is a commitment to principles.  Among this year's changes to the Olympic Charter is a renewed commitment to keep sport a neutral meeting ground: a place where nations who may agree on little else can still stand on the same field, under the same rules, and shake hands at the finish. I have believed my whole life that sport belongs to everyone; it is heartening to see that belief written more firmly into the documents that govern us.

None of this is the work of one person, and I suspect she would be the first to say so. A Games is delivered by tens of thousands of hands; a fund is filled by partners and stewarded by staff; a charter is amended by the whole membership. Leadership, at its best, is knowing where to point all of that effort and then having the steadiness to see it through. One year in, the direction looks sound, and the people it is meant to serve, the athletes, sit nearer the center than they did. 

All in all, a very satisfying and strong first year of leadership.  I, for one, couldn't be more pleased with our newest President.

- Anita

#IOC #KirstyCoventry #WomenInSport #WomenInLeadership #Olympics #SportBelongsToEveryone #OlympicMovement #FitForTheFuture #AthleteVoice #Leadership #Equity #FirstWoman #Olympism #WomenWhoLead #TeamUSA

This upcoming Fourth of July, the United States turns 250. Two and a half centuries is a long time to hold a promise; the honest truth is that we are still working to keep it. The words written in 1776 were a beginning, not a finish line, and every generation since has been asked to carry them a little further. 🇺🇸

I have spent my life believing that the things worth having are built by many hands. A nation is no different. Freedom is not a possession we inherit and set on a shelf; it is a practice, renewed by people who show up for one another, in their towns, their schools, their playing fields. 

Sport has always been one of the places where this country rehearses its best self: where a child learns fair play, where strangers become teammates, where "everyone gets a turn" is not a slogan but a rule. Sport belongs to everyone; so does the promise of this nation, when we choose to keep it. 🤝

On this upcoming Fourth of July - our cherished nation's 250th birthday - I wish you and your family joy, some time off, and appreciation for each other as people of this great country.

Blessings,
Anita

Two summers from now, Los Angeles will host the Olympic Games for a third time. If you have been thinking about being there, June is the month to act; Drop 2 registration closes July 22, with refreshed inventory across every Olympic sport when tickets release in August. 🌴

In My Olympic Life, I wrote about the first time this city claimed me: "In 1981, I moved to Los Angeles to join the organizing committee of the 1984 Games. It took me all of 10 minutes to figure out that the City of Angels would be my home."

That was forty-five years ago. I came for the Games and never left. The city hosted me, taught me, and then trusted me with its grandest civic dream more than once. The 1984 Games proved the Olympics could be staged through a public-private partnership; LA28 is poised to prove something different... that a Games can be the most inclusive in Olympic history, with women holding more competition spots than men for the first time ever, even!

Children who today are six or eight years old will walk into LA28 venues in 2028; some of them will decide on the spot to become Olympians. That is the part I keep thinking about as the registrations roll in!

Memorial Day is a day for remembering. We pause to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country: the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who never came home.

The Olympic movement, and the sporting world as a whole, have always had deep ties to military service. Many of our greatest athletes served in uniform; some gave their lives in combat.

Louis Zamperini, the 1936 Olympian, survived a bomber crash and years in a Japanese POW camp. Mal Whitfield, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, won Olympic gold in 1948 while still on active duty. Billy Mills, a Marine, became the only American ever to win the 10,000 meters at the 1964 Games. Joe Louis served as an Army sergeant while continuing to box to raise money for the war effort, and finally, Pat Tillman left the NFL – walking away from a multi-million dollar contract in the process - to enlist.

Their sacrifices remind us that the values we celebrate in sport: courage, discipline, and sacrifice for something larger than yourself, are the same values that define service to country.

I think, too, of the Olympic Truce, an ancient tradition revived by the IOC to promote peace during the Games. The hope that nations might lay down arms, even briefly, to celebrate what unites us. That hope feels especially important today.

This Memorial Day, I'll spend my time in gratitude: for those who served, for those who gave everything, and for the country they defended. May we prove worthy of their sacrifice.

#MemorialDay #MemorialDay2026 #NeverForget #HonoringOurHeroes #MilitaryService #Sacrifice #OlympicMovement #OlympicTruce #Gratitude #USA #RememberAndHonor #ServiceAboveSelf #Freedom #Veterans

Today I am thinking about my mother, Anita Page DeFrantz; the woman whose name I carry. 💐

She came to Indiana University in the late 1940s and, as a sophomore, was one of five African American women who helped integrate student housing on campus. She earned her undergraduate degree as a speech therapist, raised four children, and then went back to IU for her master's while my brother and I sat through one strange semester at a Bloomington school where we were the only two Black students enrolled. She did not soften the world for us; she taught us how to walk through it with our heads up.

In My Olympic Life, I wrote: "my mother was my first and most important role model." That has not changed in the years since. The lessons she gave me; about steadiness, about preparing well, about doing the work whether or not anyone is watching; have carried me from a college rowing seat in 1971 to half a century of Olympic service. Every podium I have stood on, every boardroom I have entered, every long flight to Lausanne... she was there.

To every mother who showed her daughter what determination looks like before the world had a name for it: thank you. To every daughter whose mother is still her first phone call: cherish that. And to those of us missing our mothers today, may the memories be sweet.

Who is the mother, grandmother, or mother-figure who shaped you? Tell me about her. 🌷

#MothersDay #MothersDay2026 #HappyMothersDay #RoleModel #MyOlympicLife #AnitaDeFrantz #OlympicMemoir #LegacyOfMothers #BlackHistory #IndianaUniversity #SportBelongstoEveryone #WomenWhoLead #DaughterOfAStrongWoman #Gratitude #FamilyLegacy

---

Excerpted from My Olympic Life by me, Anita Lucette DeFrantz:

AMAZON LINK:
https://www.amazon.com/My-Olympic-Life-Memoir-1/dp/1736001337

AUDIOBOOK:
https://www.audible.com/pd/My-Olympic-Life-Audiobook/B08VCKGBHZ

The LA84 Foundation released its 2026 California Play Equity Report this month; a measure of how far we have come in giving every child access to sport, and how far we still have to go. I had the privilege of serving as president of LA84 for nearly thirty years. The work the Foundation does today still moves me.

In My Olympic Life, I wrote about the early years: "When we started, there were areas where children were using broom handles for baseball bats and a bundle of rags for a soccer ball."

That was nearly forty years ago, and yet in 2026 we are still finding California neighborhoods where the equipment is improvised, the coaches are stretched thin, and the girls are getting fewer minutes on the field than the boys. Sport belongs to everyone... and the most reliable way to make that true is to be honest about who is being left out, then to fund what works.

LA84's research, the new MOVE Fund, and the run-up to the LA28 Games create a once-in-a-generation chance to close those gaps. If you care about youth sport, look up the report; share it with a coach, a parent, a school board member you know.
What sport changed your life? 🏀⚽
--
Excerpted from My Olympic Life by Anita L. DeFrantz with Alayne Merenstein (Cedric D. Fisher & Company Publishers). Find it at AnitaDeFrantz.com or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/My-Olympic-Life-Memoir-1/dp/1736001337/

May is one of my favorite months in rowing. Across the country, youth and collegiate rowers are competing in regional championships, chasing national qualifying times, and learning what it means to push past the point where their bodies tell them to stop. 🚣‍♀️

Next week, the Dad Vail Regatta brings together collegiate programs from across the nation on the Cooper River in New Jersey: the largest collegiate regatta in the United States. Thousands of young athletes will race for their schools, their teammates, and themselves. Some are rowing in their first major competition; others are ending careers that began on middle school docks. All of them are discovering what sport can teach: discipline, teamwork, resilience, and the quiet satisfaction of earning every meter.

When I started rowing at Connecticut College in the early 1970s, I had never picked up an oar in my life. The women's program was barely a program at all. Today, women's rowing offers more NCAA scholarships than nearly any other sport. That transformation happened because generations of athletes refused to let the sport stay small.

To every young rower out there grinding through spring racing season: you are the future. The water doesn't care where you came from or what anyone expects of you. It only asks whether you're willing to pull. Keep rowing. 💪

#Rowing #USRowing #DadVailRegatta #CollegeRowing #YouthRowing #WomensRowing #TitleIX #NextGeneration #StudentAthletes #RowingLife #SheRows #OlympicDreams #SportBelongsToEveryone #RacingSeason #FutureOlympians

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field and changed American sport forever. He didn't just break baseball's color barrier; he proved that courage and excellence could open doors that prejudice had sealed shut for generations. ⚾

I think often about what Jackie endured: the hatred from the stands, the hostility from teammates, the daily weight of representing an entire people while simply trying to play the game he loved. He understood something that every barrier-breaker comes to know — you are never playing only for yourself. Every at-bat, every stolen base, every moment of grace under pressure was a message to the next generation: you belong here too.

When I took my seat in a racing shell at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, I carried that same understanding. Sport belongs to everyone; it always has. The work is making that truth visible, one barrier at a time. Jackie Robinson did that work with a dignity that still inspires me today.

Every April 15th, Major League Baseball retires number 42 across every team. But Jackie's legacy isn't confined to a jersey number. It lives in every athlete who walks onto a field where they were once told they didn't belong — and plays anyway. 🙏🏾

#JackieRobinsonDay #42 #JackieRobinson #BreakingBarriers #CivilRights #MLB #BaseballHistory #SportBelongsToEveryone #Trailblazer #LA28

Last month, on March 3, 1976, nineteen Yale oarswomen walked into their athletic director's office, removed their sweats, and revealed "Title IX" written across their bodies. They were cold, they were tired of waiting on buses while the men used the only showers, and they were done being invisible. The next day, their protest was in The New York Times. Within a year, Yale had built them a locker room.

I was training for the Montreal Olympics that spring, preparing to compete in one of the first women's rowing events in Olympic history. The Yale women and I were fighting the same fight on different fronts: them on campus, us on the international stage. Title IX was just four years old, and most institutions were still pretending they hadn't heard of it. 🚣‍♀️

Fifty years later, I look at women's rowing today and see the fruit of that courage. Scholarships, facilities, coaching staffs, national championships. None of it came because someone decided to be generous. It came because athletes like Chris Ernst and her teammates refused to be silent.
Who are the women who opened doors for you? Take a moment to thank them... or to become one yourself. ✊

#TitleIX #YaleRowing #WomensRowing #GenderEquity #WomenInSport #AHeroForDaisy #ChrisErnst #1976 #CollegeAthletics #EqualOpportunity #SportBelongsToEveryone #RowingHistory #WomenAthletes #AthleteRights #TitleIX50