CHICAGO, Illinois, July 29. AFTER a long, national search, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC)Executive Committee looked inward and selected current USOC Vice President, Marty Mankamyer,68, as the nominee for the presidency of the USOC.
Several other internal candidates had been vying for the position. Donna DeVarona initially threw her hat in the ring but withdrew without explanation a week ago.
SwimInfo has also learned that several individuals on the USOC staff had urged Mark Spitz to run for the position. However, after consideration of the time commitment involved, Spitz decided against putting himself up for consideration.
Mankamyer's name will now be placed on a ballot and submitted to the USOC Board of Directors. If she achieves a majority vote of the Board, Mankamyer will be named USOC President for the remainder of the current quadrennial period, which ends late in 2004.
Under Article XI, Section 5(A) of the USOC's constitution, the USOC Executive Committee was required to make a nomination to the Board of
Directors to fill the position vacated by Sandra Baldwin, who resigned on May 24, 2002 after it was reported that she had falsified academic credentials on her official USOC bio. Now the Board will be requested to approve by mail ballot Mankamyer's nomination for the organization's top volunteer position. If this process does not result in the Executive Committee's nominee receiving a majority of votes, the Executive Committee must determine the process whereby it will make a nomination to the Board of Directors for its consideration at the November 2002 BOD meeting in Colorado Springs.
The ballot nominating Mankamyer will be sent to USOC Board of Director members within the next few days. Within approximately 10 days thereafter, completed ballots must be returned to one of the USOC's outside accounting firms. The result of the vote will be announced shortly thereafter.
Mankamyer, who has been the USOC's Acting President since Baldwin's resignation, is serving her first term as USOC Vice President Secretariat. She has been a member of the USOC Board of Directors since 1990, where she represented the U.S. Soccer Federation, and, as Vice Chair of the NGB Council, served on the USOC Executive Committee from 1992 to 1996.
The first woman elected to U.S. Soccer Federation's Executive Committee, Mankamyer led the successful effort to include women's soccer on the official program for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. In addition to serving as Assistant Chef de Mission for the U.S. Delegation at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, she was soccer delegation supervisor at the 1996 Olympic Games, water skiing supervisor and soccer liaison at the 1995 Pan American Games in Argentina, and soccer's volunteer at the 1983, 1979 and
1978 National Sports Festivals.
A native of Farmington, N.M., Mankamyer and her husband, Jack, have four daughters, three sons and nine grandchildren.