Newsday - Research reveals the story of Britain's first black Olympian - BBC Sounds

Newsday hears about the historical research that uncovered the long lost story of Britain's first black Olympic athlete.

It was long thought that sprinter Harry Edward was Britain's first black pioneer athlete when he competed in the 1920 games, but new documents have revealed that it was in fact Louis Bruce who competed in the 1908 London games as a wrestler.

Louis Bruce is already known to transport historians as one of the first black tram drivers in Britain. Last year he was celebrated by the London Transport Museum and appeared on its Black History tube map. Until now, however, his sporting claim seems to have been forgotten.

Andy Mitchell is a sports historian and a member of the team who uncovered Bruce's story, "It's a remarkable discovery" he said, "It's only recently thanks to the initial discovery of a set of original documents, application forms
for those Olympic games that the truth started to emerge."