Officers

DIANE SIMPSON (gymnastics, 1988), President

Tony D. Brooks (Rowing 1972, 1976), Vice President Tony Brooks has been in competitive rowing since 1968. He was stroke for the 4+ in the 1973 (4^th) and 1975 (10^th) World Championships and for the 4+ in the 1975 Pan American Games, where his team won the bronze medal. At the 1974 World Championships—as stroke for the 4 without—Brooks placed fifth. He learned the sport at Harvard College, where he is in the Varsity Club Hall of Fame as a member of the 1971 Varsity Lightweight Crew. Undefeated throughout all college races, this crew won the Thames Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in 1971. Brooks has competed in the Head of the Charles for 41 years and has won it in four different events. He is the Head Coach for the St. Ignatius College Prep crew and coaches the varsity girls. His crews have achieved national success at the U.S. Rowing National Championships and at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America. Brooks, a member of The Leander Club of Henley-on-Thames, graduated cum laude general studies with an AB from Harvard College in 1972 and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979. He worked previously for Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.) and Rep. Bernie Sisk (D-Calif.), and with the U.S. Federal Energy Administration and U.S. International Trade Commission, and for companies in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Chicago, including Harbridge House, Kendall Company, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Kenneth Leventhal & Co., Rauscher Pierce Refnes, Kurt Salmon and Associates, and Metzler and Associates. He serves currently as Managing Director-Chicago for The Ansley Consulting Group, Inc., a national executive search firm. Brooks resides in Wilmette, Ill., with his wife, Molly Baskin. They have two grown children.

Steve Gregg, PhD, claimed the silver medal in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal and at the 1975 Pan American Games. Gregg won the Olympic silver medal in a United States sweep. He represented the United States on 14 international teams and medaled in nearly every major world event during the 1970s and 1980s, which included breaking Mark Spitz’s Olympic Record in Montreal. Gregg is the current vice president of the Midwest Chapter of U.S. Olympians and Paralympians and serves as Account Director at Abelson Taylor, the largest full-service healthcare advertising agency. Gregg earned a Bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University, s Master’s degree in Exercise Science from the University of Arizona and his Ph.D. degree in Exercise Biochemistry - Physiology from University of California, Berkeley. Gregg, a former partner at Hackworth Lee, Inc., director of marketing at Afficient, and Vice President Group Account Director at Ammirati Puris Lintas, started his career with the Gatorade Division of the Quaker Oats Company.

LINDA MASTANDREA (athletics, 1992, 1996), U.S. Olympians Association Vice President
A two-time Paralympian and world record-holder, Linda Mastandrea (1992, 1996) won a Gold and a Silver medal in track at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta and represented the United States at three World Championships, the Pan American Games and the Stoke-Mandeville Wheelchair Games, winning 15 gold and five silver medals. Mastandrea graduated in the top ten in her high school class and went on to earn her BA from the University of Illinois in 1986 and her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1994. Mastandrea served as Director of Paralympics and Accessibility and as a board member at Chicago 2016 and continues to work as an attorney with a specialty in disability law and advocacy. A published author of a book titled "Sports and the Physically Challenged: An Encyclopedia of People, Events and Organizations," Mastandrea has received numerous awards for her accomplishments and serves on many boards. Named one of Crain’s Chicago Business Forty Under 40, she received the International Olympic Committee President’s Disabled Athlete Award, the David Award from the Italo-American National Union, and was named an Outstanding Woman Leader in Sports by the YWCA of DuPage. Mastandrea, who serves as the Midwest Chapter secretary, is the first Paralympian to hold office in a U.S. Olympians Assoc. regional chapter. She was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

Ann Swisshelm (curling, 2002), Secretary

Active curler Ann Swisshelm is training for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.  Her foursome of Olympians Erika Brown, Debbie McCormick and Jessica Schwartz helped the United States qualify a spot at the Olympic Games with its recent finish at the 2013 World Championships.  Swisshelm is a 2003 World Champion who competed at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and twice was a runner-up at the U.S. Olympic Trials.  Swisshelm has years of experience as an active member of Olympic Movement committees that included a term on the leadership team of the Athletes' Advisory Council for the U.S. Olympic Committee.  She is a five-time U.S. National Champion, an event she has competed in for nearly 20 years, winning numerous medals of every color.  She also served as a Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee member. 

JOHN VANDE VELDE (cycling, 1968, 1972), Treasurer
John Vande Velde competed in men’s team pursuit, 4,000 meters at the 1968 Olympic Games and in the men’s individual pursuit and team pursuit at the 1972 Olympic Games. He is a U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame inductee, Class of 2004. He won a bronze medal in the Pan American Games and is a three-time national champion. Vande Velde is also father to two-time Olympian and Tour de France rider Christian Vande Velde (cycling, 2000, 2008) and is the former vice president of USA Cycling. Professionally, Vande Velde is known as the builder of the “Vande-drome,” a portable velodrome, and as one of the United States’ first successful professional cyclists. He is also noteworthy for his role in the critically acclaimed “Breaking Away.” Vande Velde is the Treasurer of the Midwest Olympians and Paralympians