Anita DeFrantz and Francis “Conn” Findlay Are Finalists for the USOPC Hall of Fame

Vote for Francis “Conn” Findlay for USOPC Hall of Fame. 

Anita DeFrantz and Francis “Conn” Findlay are finalists for the USOPC Hall of Fame. Voting is open for the finalists for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes and teams who will be inducted into the Class of 2025. USRowing supporters can vote every day for Findlay from now through April 14 for the Olympic category at TeamUSA.com/HOF to help Findlay join the Class of 2025. 

Francis “Conn” Findlay is one of the most accomplished rowers and sailors in the U.S. He won two Olympic gold medals in rowing, in 1956 and 1964, and medaled at four Olympic Games across two different sports—rowing and sailing—over 20 years. It is incredibly rare for an Olympic athlete to switch sports and medal at the top of both, but Findlay did so with distinction. He captained the crew that won the America’s Cup in 1974 and 1977, becoming one of only 11 sailors to have won both an Olympic medal and the America’s Cup. He remains the only American to win both the America’s Cup and Olympic gold in rowing. Findlay was inducted into the Stanford Hall of Fame, the National Sailing Hall of Fame and the National Rowing Foundation Hall of Fame twice. He was named US Rowing’s Man of the Year in 2007 and was also selected to the Pac-12 Men’s Rowing All Century Team in 2016. 

Olympian Anita DeFrantz is one of the finalists for the Legend category. Anita DeFrantz’s work with the Olympic movement is almost impossible to sum up. In 1987, she began a 28-year run as president of the LA84 Foundation, stewarding the legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games. Over the past 32 years, the foundation has invested more than $225 million to support more than 2,000 youth sports organizations and continues to provide Los Angeles youth with recreation and sports opportunities. In 1992, DeFrantz was elected to the IOC Executive Board and was appointed to the IOC's Olympic Program Commission. In 1995, she was appointed chair of the Women and Sport Consortium, which succeeded in opening up sport more to women, and then in 1997, she was the first woman elected to a four-year term as an IOC vice president, a position she held until 2001. She was elected to a second term as an IOC vice president in 2018. 

DeFrantz was a member of the first official U.S. women’s national team to compete at the World Championships in 1975 in the women’s four and won bronze at the 1976 Olympics in the women’s eight. She was the first black woman to win an Olympic medal in rowing. U.S. Olympians, Paralympians and members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic family will vote on the legend, coach and special contributor categories. 

The list of finalists was selected from more than 100 nominations received this year. Through the next round of voting, the finalists list will be narrowed down to five Olympians, three Paralympians, one Olympic team, one Paralympic team, one legend, one coach and one special contributor for induction into the class of 2025.   

The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame Class of 2025 will be officially inducted during a special ceremony on Saturday, July 12 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.