Unsung Hero- Trailblazing Black Swimmer Enith Brigitha

We chat with a swimming hero, from her home in Holland. Enith Brigitha was the first black swimmer to win an Olympic medal with 2 bronzes in the 100 & 200 free at the 1976 Montreal games, and while such a monumental feat as breaking the podium color barrier deserves the utmost praise, tragically, her 100 free bronze should have been gold.

Enith burst onto the world scene as a young 17yr old at the 1972 Munich Olympics, finaling in 3 individual events and 2 relays. She’d come back a year later in 73 to win an individual silver medal at the first ever world championships. She was clearly headed for Montreal to do something big.

But just as Enith was ready to peak, the East Germans were making plans of their own, by creating one of the darkest periods in sports history as their systematic doping programme allowed the DDR to dominate world athletics for many years to come, and famously was on full display at the 76 Games where East German women won all but 2 swimming events. Enith was beaten only by 2 East Germans, both of whom an investigation would eventually prove were aided by performance enhancing drugs.

45years later, the IOC still has not disqualified their tainted results, which means Enith still doesn’t have her gold medal. It was a true honor for us to share this conversation with such a trailblazer, deserving of far more credit than she has received.