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Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell

These Heavy Black Bones

Hay Festival 2024, 

Aged 15, Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell was world number one in the 50m breaststroke. Over the next three years, she would become a double British champion, sports personality of the year in Kenya, and make the Great British Olympic team as the first Black woman to swim for Britain. She made history, but chose to walk away from it all. Ajulu-Bushell shares how she achieved victory and what it cost her to do so, physically and mentally. Laying bare the pressures of success and meditating on Blackness and identity, Ajulu-Bushell is honest and heartfelt. Lahiri talks to Creative Producer Heather Marks.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell