The Race to Olympia: Anita and Kirsty

Anita DeFrantz has defied illness to travel to Costa Navarino to vote for Kirsty Coventry in the election for IOC President. She has already played a very important role in Coventry's Olympic career

My first reaction on spying Anita DeFrantz shuffling out of the Opening Ceremony of the 144th International Olympic Committee Session in Ancient Olympia on Tuesday was how sad it was to see this Olympic bronze medal-winning oarswoman reduced to such a frail and fragile state.

But I quickly had second thoughts. If anyone has poured their absolute heart and soul into the Olympic Movement in recent decades, it is the 72-year-old American, who won her medal in 1976 in Montreal, the same Olympics where International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach won his.

Far from sad, was it not, rather, inspirational that DeFrantz, the first woman to run for IOC President, had taken such pains to travel once again to this special, special place for her and to cast her vote (or so I would imagine) for the second woman to run for IOC President, Kirsty Coventry?