Zola Budd - Arrival in Britain

Arrival in Britain

The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international sporting boycott of South Africa so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the Daily Mail, British citizenship was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to her acquiring a passport under preferential circumstances. Groups supporting the abolition of apartheid campaigned vociferously and effectively to highlight the special treatment she received; other applicants had to wait sometimes years to be granted citizenship, if at all.

Shortly afterwards Budd was forced to pull out of a 1,500 metre race in Crawley, Sussex, when the town council withdrew their invitation at short notice. The race was part of the inaugural event for the town's new Bewbush Leisure Centre and Mayor Alf Pegler said members of the council had expressed misgivings that the local significance of the event would be overshadowed by "political connotations and anti-apartheid demonstrators".

She ran her first competitive race on the cinder track at Central Park in Dartford, Kent, covering 3000 metres in 9 mins. 2.6 seconds in a race shown live on the BBC's Grandstand programme. She ran in further races in Britain including the UK Championships 1,500m (won in 4m 4s) and the 3,000m in the UK Olympic trials which she won in 8 mins. 40 secs., earning a place on the British Olympic team. In the 2,000m at Crystal Palace in July 1984 she set a new world record of 5 mins. 33.15 secs. Commenting during the race for the BBC, David Coleman exclaimed, "The message will now be flashed around the world – Zola Budd is no myth."