INTERVIEW- ANN BRIGHTWELL: 50 YEARS ON

ANN BRIGHTWELL: 50 YEARS ON

20^th October 1964 Ann Packer became the first British woman to win an Olympic Games gold medal on the track.

Today it s fifty years to the day since Ann’s landmark moment in Tokyo and I was lucky enough to interview her earlier this month about where her passion for athletics started to the despair and jubilation of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo to retiring straight after the Tokyo Games. She also explains the work she has done in recent years inspiring people to get ‘active’ in the local area.

If you have not seen the 800m final, which saw her win gold, then it is well worth a watch. Ann was sixth at 400m, third at 600m and then finally took the lead in the home straight.

What makes it even more astonishing is the 800m final was her sixth race in as many days with her also competing in the 400m in the same Olympics. The 400m was her favoured event but she finished second, despite breaking the British and European record in the final. Ann could have so easily given up after the “depths of despair” of finishing second in the 400m but she didn’t. If she had done that, then she would not be sitting talking to me with a gold medal around her neck.

Sport in 1964 was completely different than nowadays. Perhaps the biggest difference is that athletes were amateurs. Robbie and Ann both had day jobs. Ann was a PE teacher and Robbie was a maths, geography and PE teacher. They both got up early to train before teaching, they then gave up their lunch time to train and after school they also trained. They did all this but got no income from their athletics career.

Robbie was more interested in football than athletics when he was younger however after being injured he focused on athletics, having impressed in competitions. Like Robbie, Ann tried different sports as a child, she was a keen hockey, tennis, netball player but she took athletics more seriously because she was good at it. She said she took it a “step at a time” and received lots of support and then aspired to win a gold medal and compete at an Olympic Games.

Ann hadn’t even considered the 800m before somebody suggested it to her prior to the 1964 Olympic Games as she thought she could make it as a sprinter. However, she said she wasn’t good enough to make an Olympic final as a sprinter. Therefore, she says that whilst you are young keep an open mind when competing in sport and try as many sports as possible. Chances are doing different sports will improve your ability at a specific sport as Ann’s sprinting training was perhaps the main reason why she won gold in the 800m as well as her determination.

When she met Robbie she realised that she was not doing enough to push herself, something she says is very important to becoming a successful athlete.

Ann thinks that the talent in athletics in Britain “is there” and that it is “coming back” and that Britain are actually on the “brink” of a “golden age” of athletes. Could you be part of this golden age?

Ann believes that in order to make a success of whatever you choose to aim for in your life you have to be “brave” and “resilient” and “just persevere” because for much of the time things do not go your way. “If you get beaten in sport you have to be able to pick yourself up again and start again. And when something knocks you back you just have to “keep on going” and not give up.

Over recent years the pair have encouraged more people to be “active” after they released some alarming statistics earlier this year, saying that 12,000 people in Congleton alone could be obese. The problem is not only on a local scale though it is on a national and international level, something which Robbie says will have “huge implications” on us [the young people of Britain] in the future. Robbie describes it as the “biggest public health crisis the nation has every faced.” He goes onto say that people are extremely worried about the latest Ebola outbreak but in fact ten times as many people in Britain alone die because of obesity in 12 months and another 30,000 have died because of a lack of fitness. Because of this he says that it will bring the National Health Service [NHS] “to its knees”, so much so that by 2030 there may not even be an NHS. £16 billion a year is spent by the NHS just on solving the problem of obesity and lack of fitness. The only way Robbie says it can be tackled is by tackling the causes- lack of exercise.

ANN’S GOLDEN TIPS

• Set your sight.
• You need to be brave enough to overcome obstacles, staying “brave and resilient.”
• You need to exploit your ability.
• And you have to accept the setbacks and most importantly NEVER GIVE UP.

You can hear my full exclusive interview with Ann and Robbie here.

Written by Adam Bailey