These Heavy Black Bones

£10.99

By the age of fifteen Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell was world number one in the 50m breaststroke. Over the next three years, she would go on to become a double British champion, sports personality of the year in Kenya and make the GBR Olympic team. She was the first Black woman to do so. But this story is not about making history. This is the story of how she got there, what it cost her and, more importantly, why she walked away from it all. From swimming in wild lakes and the Indian ocean, to chlorine-damaged skin, gruelling training and press scrutiny, Rebecca charts her career’s ascent in stunning prose. Laying bare the pressures at the core of competitive swimming and meditating on Blackness and identity, ‘These Heavy Black Bones’ is a compulsive study of intensity and the ecstasy and agony of peak physical performance.

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Description

WINNER OF THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS’ CLUB FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE

‘Poetic, candid and utterly compelling’ FREYA BROMLEY
‘Absolutely remarkable’ LYNN BARBER
‘Reads with the tension of a thriller, illuminating the the struggle and sacrifice of elite sport’ CATHY RENTZENBRINK
‘An embodied water odyssey’ LIDIA YUKNAVITCH

This is not a story about making history. This is the story of walking away from it all.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell was once a double British Champion and the first Black woman ever to swim for Great Britain. As her body and mind are sharpened through gruelling training, press scrutiny and the harshness of adolescence, Rebecca charts her career’s ascent and her singular love of the water, before explaining why she walked away from it all.

A compulsive and unforgettable study of intensity, These Heavy Black Bones meditates on Blackness, identity and the ecstasy of peak physical performance, and lays bare the pressures within the swimming world.

Additional information

Weight 180 g
Dimensions 19.8 × 12.9 × 1.5 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback
Pages

256
Language

English
Edition
Dewey

797.21 (edition:23)
Readership

General – Trade / Code: K

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