Patricia Rico, former head of USA Track and Field, dies

INDIANAPOLIS - Patricia Rico, the first female president of USA Track and Field, has died. She was 76.

The governing body of track and field said she died Sunday of respiratory failure in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.

Rico spent more than 50 years in track and field and was USATF president from 1996 to 2000. She championed equality for female athletes and played a key part in restructuring the governing body in the late 1990s.

Rico competed in discus at the 1960 U.S. Olympic trials. She later cofounded Track Mirror, the first American publication for women's track and field. She officiated at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Rico lived in nearby Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Survivors include her daughter, Elizabeth Conti. - AP