Team GB’s first black female swimmer Achieng Ajulu-Bushell has taken a swipe at the sport’s national governing body for failing to support her while at a plateau in her progress. Widely regarded as one of Britain’s brighest talents, she recently dropped out of British Swimming’s World Class Performance program, and will now turn her attentions on achieving the grades needed to land a place at Oxford University in September. Saying that she would “rather have a first-class degree than an Olympic medal”, and following it up with this scathing remark:
“It is my easiest way of justifying it (not competing at the Games). I haven’t been overly motivated for a year and didn’t get better for two. It is a brutal sport and horrible to go through the plateau when things aren’t going right. There was a huge lack of support for athletes not doing well.
“So many needed attention that it just went against British Swimming’s ethos of this being a long-term sport. But I’m not bitter. I just got to the stage where I got fed up. My stroke was changed and I simply lost rhythm and strength in my legs.”
(And video from when Ajulu-Bushell was 15, she’s now 17)
Via ESPN, see also SwimmingWorld Magazine and The Telegraph
