Mount Holyoke College • Vista • Fall 2012, Volume 17 No. 2


Olympic Success
Officially, the Olympic flame traveled throughout the UK for 70 days before reaching the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Games. But, as Barbara Cassani ’82 can explain in detail, its journey to London began nearly a decade ago.


Cassani, an American-born businesswoman, made history in her thirties as the first female CEO of a com- mercial airline—British Airways’ budget airline, Go— which she’d also founded. In 2003, she was chosen to lead London’s bid for the XXX Olympiad. She and her committee spent the next two years persuading the International Olympic Committee that the Summer Games belonged in London rather than Paris, Moscow, New York City, or Madrid.


“I remember when I took on the chairmanship no one thought the city could do it—first, win the bid and second, host wonderful Games. Thanks to a huge and amazing group of people, the doubters were proved wrong,” said Cassani.


“Somehow it seems fitting that these Games were the first to insist that every country send male and female athletes, and the London Organizing Committee chose a woman, ex-tennis pro Debby Jevans, to be responsible for delivering all the venues and sporting competitions. Women made a huge impact at the Games—both behind the scenes and on the playing fields.”


Find more Mount Holyoke College women of influence at www.mtholyoke.edu/175.

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