BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Anne Cribbs, an Olympic swimmer and parks commissioner who is behind the push for a city-owned gym, has filed papers to run for Palo Alto City Council.
Cribbs is the ninth candidate to join the race, competing for one of four open seats in November.
Cribbs, 79, was born in San Mateo and grew up in Menlo Park. She was on a gold-winning relay team at the 1960 Olympic games in Rome as a 15-year-old swimmer, according to her bio for the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Cribbs moved to Palo Alto in 1964 and graduated from Stanford, before the school had a women’s swim team. She used to work for the city of Palo Alto in the community services department.
Cribbs is the board president for a new nonprofit that’s fundraising for a city-owned gym, called Friends of the Palo Alto Recreation and Wellness Center.
The gym idea started rolling in January 2022, when billionaire developer John Arrillaga pledged $35 million for construction. But Arrillaga died days later, and his offer was contingent on him personally managing the project.
But Cribbs said the project could still get done — if the city donates the land, then private donors could fund construction, which she estimated would cost $25 million.
“I believe in Palo Alto,” Cribbs said at a Parks and Recreation Commission meeting in March 2022.
Cribbs is eying Greer Park as a potential location. The Cubberley Community Center is also on the table.
Cribbs is the only member of the Parks and Recreation Commission to enter the race. She is in her third four-year term.
Four members of the Planning and Transportation Commission are running: George Lu, Keith Reckdahl, Doria Summa and Cari Templeton.
Councilman Pat Burt and Mayor Greer Stone are trying to keep their seats.
Katie Causey, a member of the Human Relations Commission, and resident Henry Etzkowitz, who wants rent control for seniors, have also filed papers to run. Candidates have until Aug. 9 to enter the race.
‘She was on a gold-winning relay team at the 1960 Olympic games in Rome as a 15-year-old swimmer’
She didn’t actually earn a medal. She swam in the preliminary heats and was ineligible for one; only the athletes who swam in the finals were awarded medals. She’s claimed she was a gold medal winner for decades and no one has questioned it. Please make the correction.
Why are we the taxpayers paying for the city to compete with private industry when we can already go to gyms that already exist or buy fiber services that already exist??
More critically, why do candidates keep pushing these projects that we end up funding through constant utility rate hikes?
The 1960s women’s swimming relay winners do not include Cribbs. The 4 winners are named plus other team members. Cribbs is not among them. Google it.
This must be clarified immediately. If she has lied for decades, she’s unqualified to serve on council.
Cribbs was investigated in a 2020 election scandal by the high profile US Olympian and Paralympian Assoc.(USOPC) for misrepresenting that she won an Olympic medal 50 years earlier.
She did not and has no Olympic medals. Cribbs swam in an earlier heat while others on the US swim team won the relay Gold for themselves.
As a result of her misrepresentation, USOPC removed her from a prestigious committee.
At the time, the Merc News, Orange Co. Register, Swimmers World and SwimSwam covered this investigation of Cribbs.
For decades we were led by her to believe she won Olympic gold. Is this level of integrity what we want in a city council member? Surely not.
If Julie Lythcott Haynes can mislead people about why she left Stanford, why shouldn’t Cribbs be allowed to play an Olympic medalist on council? They’re all fakes anyway.