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These Indiana athletes are world-beaters and world-changers

David Woods
IndyStar
Anita DeFrantz, who was born in Indianapolis and graduated from Shortridge High School, has long been involved in the international sports world. She is a lifetime member of the International Olympic Committee. She won the 1976 Olympic bronze medal as captain of the U.S. women’s rowing team, but she didn’t play sports at Shortridge.

INDIANAPOLIS – In the superhero film “Wonder Woman,” Diana Prince was raised on the fictional island of Themyscira. Or is Themyscira another town in Indiana?

In 2017, female sports Hoosiers were world-beaters and world-changers. They ranged in age from 16 to 65. They were achievers on the bike, on the track and in the pool . . . not to mention the boardroom.

Anita DeFrantz, a Southridge High School graduate, won her second term as a vice president of the International Olympic Committee. Elkhart’s Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko became the first woman to lead USA Swimming’s national team.

USA Gymnastics, the besieged organization whose headquarters are in Indianapolis, hired its first female CEO in nearly 20 years, Kerry Perry.

Three medalists from the 2016 Rio Olympics – Lilly King, Chloe Dygert and Ashley Spencer – reaffirmed their status in 2017.

IU and Olympic swimmers Lilly King and Cody Miller, were Grand Marshals of the 2017 Little 500 at Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.

King, an Indiana University swimmer from Evansville, won four gold medals — all with world records — at the World Championships. She would have won a fifth medal had she not been defeated in the 200-meter breaststroke by Bethany Galat, another native Hoosier.

Olympic silver medalist Chloe Dygert.

Dygert, of Brownsburg, won gold medals in individual and team pursuit at track cycling’s World Championships. Spencer, of Indianapolis, scored her first two 400-meter hurdles victories on the Diamond League circuit.

Swimmer Emily Weiss.

Then there were high school athletes such as Yorktown swimmer Emily Weiss, a world junior champion; Pike sprinter Lynna Irby, who completed a four-year, 12-for-12 sweep of state titles; and Center Grove’s Erica Shepherd, the U.S. girls’ junior champion in golf.

Maybe all of the above is coincidence. Maybe it is not.

“Sports has always been a huge part of the culture of Indiana,” said Mintenko, 41, who won two Olympic gold medals and five NCAA titles. “It’s not that big of a state, but we definitely support each other. I noticed that leaving the state and going to California. I have yet to witness any other state that does that for its athletes. I think that’s something special about the mind-set and growing up in Indiana.”

Mintenko, a University of Southern California graduate and former assistant coach there, succeeded former national team director Frank Busch. At her request, she retained the title of national team managing director. She lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., with her husband, Mike, a former Canadian swimmer, and their two children.

Mintenko said winning the Mental Attitude Award at the 1995 state meet was transformative.

“It was really a big opportunity for me just to be able to say, ‘You know what? It’s not always what happens on the field of play,’ ” she said.

Lynna Irby.

DeFrantz had a transformative experience as a 3-year-old. Her parents took a family drive outside Greenwood, where, after walking through the snow, her father read them this sign:

Don’t be here after dark – (racial epithet). 

The story opened DeFrantz’s memoir, “My Olympic Life,” written with Josh Young.

“Now I can see that it planted a seed in my personal constitution that ultimately led me to spend the rest of my life speaking up at the first blush of any injustice,” DeFrantz wrote.

She graduated from Connecticut College in 1974 and made the Olympic eight while she was a Penn law student, becoming the first black athlete to represent the United States in Olympic rowing. She won a bronze medal at Montreal in 1976.

According to a 2015 Ernst & Young report, 94 percent of female top executives played sports, 52 percent at university level. Girls who play sports have greater social and economic mobility, are less likely to use drugs and perform better in school, according to the report.

Cheryl Cooky, an associate professor at Purdue, said it is important to see positive images of female athletes.

“Because it challenges the way that we think about girls and women in society and the traditional expectations that have been imposed on girls and women for centuries,” she said.

Mintenko conceded that when she was a teenager, being an athlete was not necessarily “cool.” She was 6 feet tall in eighth grade, and swimming was her outlet. On the other hand, she said she never felt denied an opportunity because of gender.

 A generation later, there was nothing uncool about being a female athlete. Asked if she ever felt disadvantaged, the 22-year-old Galat replied, “I never honestly thought about it.”

There was a Bethany Galat Day in Mishawaka while she was in high school. The Texas A&M swimmer made a breakthrough at the 2016 Olympic Trials, nearly making the U.S. team. She augmented that by winning a world silver medal in 2017.

If she was influenced by Indiana culture, she said, it was that the high school season superseded club swimming.

“The team bonding can develop through the season,” Galat said. “It’s something that no other state really experiences as much as Indiana.”

Dygert is something of an iconoclast because she does not complain about inequities in cycling. Her earnings are much less than those of her husband, Logan Owen, a cyclist who does not have the resumé she does.

Eventually, Dygert added, that will change. She said she has worked hard to ascend to where she is.

“Being in the Midwest, I’m very conservative,” said Dygert, 21, who lives in Port Orchard, Wash. “My opinions are very different from most of the cyclists I spend time with. Not that it’s bad. But it is interesting to see.

“Women can make something sound so bad.”

If she avoids injury – a torn labrum in her hip inhibited her last year – Dygert could become one of the faces of Team USA heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — not only in cycling, but all sports. She could win medals in both track and road.

 At the 2017 track worlds in Hong Kong, she posted the fastest individual pursuit ever at sea level, less than seven-tenths off the world record set by Sarah Hammer at Mexico City in 2010.

“It almost kind of makes me a little bit annoyed. ‘Do you feel different as a female?’ ” Dygert said. “It’s frustrating to me.”

Glass ceilings? Gender barriers? Limitations?

These Indiana women crash right through them.

Call IndyStar reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

Women of the year

Some of Indiana’s female sports achievers of 2017:

Administration/coaching

Anita DeFrantz: Vice president of International Olympic Committee.

Lindsay (Benko) Mintenko: First female executive of USA Swimming’s national team division.

Kerry Perry: New CEO of USA Gymnastics.

Le’gretta Smith: Led Warren Central to back-to-back girls state track titles, becoming first female coach to do so in more than 20 years.

Basketball

Brianna Turner: Notre Dame’s All-America center is redshirting this season to rehab a knee injury.

Cycling

Chloe Dygert: Won individual pursuit and team pursuit gold medals at track worlds. Fourth in individual time trial at road worlds.

Coryn Rivera: Marian University graduate finished fourth in World Tour road standings for the season. Gold medalist with Sunweb in team trial at road worlds.

Golf

Erica Shepherd: Center Grove senior won U.S. Junior girls’ championship and qualified for 2018 U.S. Open.

Soccer

Kristina Lynch: Led Penn to back-to-back state titles. Scored 44 goals.

Paige Monaghan: Big East offensive player of the year for Butler and second-team All-America midfielder.

Maddy Williams: Big Ten forward of the year for Purdue, leading conference in goals (14) and points (36). Second-team All-America forward.

Swimming

Bethany Galat: World silver medalist in 200-meter breaststroke.

Lilly King: Won four gold medals, setting four world records, at World Championships. NCAA titles in 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes, lowering her own American records.

Kelly Pash: Triple medalist at World Junior Championships. Carmel swimmer won 100- and 200-yard freestyles at winter junior nationals.

Emily Weiss: World junior champion in 50-meter breaststroke. Broke King’s state record in 100-yard breaststroke.

Track and field

Ashley Spencer: Won two Diamond League races in 400-meter hurdles. Ranked No. 5 in world.

Molly Huddle: Notre Dame graduate won 24th and 25th career national titles, in 10,000 meters on the track and 5,000 meters on the road.

Lynna Irby: Pike sprinter set state record of 11.41 in 100 meters and completed 12-of-12 sweep of state titles.

Katherine Receveur: Third in NCAA 5,000 meters and first IU runner in 27 years to win Big Ten in cross-country.

Emma Wilson: After 1,600/3,200 double in state track, Greencastle runner completed a 2017 triple in cross-country. Ran 14th at Nike nationals.

Volleyball

Danielle Cuttino: Purdue’s fourth first-team All-America (top six players). Led Big Ten with 4.09 kills per set.

Wrestling

Alara Boyd: Yorktown teenager won silver medal at Cadet World Championships.