Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell initially represented Kenya as a professional swimmer including the 2009 World Championships in Rome where she won medals for the country, at a tender age of 15 years.
In 2010, her mother decided that she was better placed to represent Britain, a decision that made the first black woman to swim for Britain even being picked to represent the European country in the 2012 Olympic Games that were held in London.
After all of these achievements, she left the world of sports in 2012, just months before she was to compete at the Olympic Games drawing negative coverage from the British press.
Now retired, Achieng, has come out to express regret at the turn of events that followed her decision to change nationality saying it exposed her to racism and bullying which had an effect on her mental well-being.
"I realise it was all a shame. Shame about how I was treated, by coaches. My performance was a commodity and how fast I could swim was more important than my well-being. Embarrassed about the way the press wrote about me when I failed to live up to expectations, that I couldn’t talk about the pressure because you couldn’t show weakness." she narrated.
Link : https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/74100-kenyan-athlete-opens-pain-suffering-after-switching-loyalty-britain
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