Exhibition on first black British Olympian extended

An exhibition honouring the achievements of Britain’s first black female Olympian has been extended due to the level of public interest.

Items from former sprinter Anita Neil have been on display at Wellingborough Museum to coincide with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The exhibition, due to end on 9 August, will now run until 2 September because of popularity with visitors.

“They’ve had a stream of people going in, which is marvellous,” she said.

“A lot of people didn’t know anything about me and they’ll get to know that there’s an Olympian living here,” added Ms Neil, 71.

Photographs of medals from her career, newspaper cuttings and the tracksuits and spikes she wore at the Mexico City and Munich Games are some of the featured items.

Ms Neil competed in the 100m and the 4x100m relay at both the 1968 and 1972 Olympics.

She also won three bronze medals, in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay, at the 1969 European Championships in Athens, and a silver medal in the 4x100m relay at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Ms Neil said competing in her first Olympics was “awesome”, adding that “it was surreal, and the atmosphere, the crowd, it was fabulous”.

Speaking of the exhibition, she said she was “very proud and honoured” to have one in her hometown.

“I feel like I’m living my own history,” she said.

“Anybody who’s been the first pioneer, who’s done anything for the first time, who’s been influential or inspired others, it needs to be brought to the forefront. It needs to be recognised and documented to readdress the balance.

“There’s a lot of pioneers out there and influencers and it wasn’t documented throughout the years over history, including myself.

“Due to the recent Black Lives Matter it’s been brought to the forefront…and it needs to be still told.”

The museum first displayed Ms Neil’s Olympic memorabilia in 2012 during the London Games and the exhibition has since been added to.

Robert Wharton, manager at Wellingborough Museum, said there had been “so much interest”.

“It’s a fact that there’s very few famous people who come from Wellingborough and Anita is the first Olympian from Wellingborough,” said Mr Wharton.

“To have something really personal is quite unusual for us and people have just been coming in wanting to look at the pictures.”

Ms Neil, who has given talks at schools and care homes, said she would love to see a permanent exhibition one day.

“I am the first black female Olympian to run for Great Britain on the world stage. I’m extremely delighted about that fact because it’s a record that can’t be broken.”