THEY were the Usain Bolt, Tom Daley and Oscar Pistorius of their day – running, diving and jumping to glory for their country in the first Olympic Games since World War Two.
Have you ever wondered what happened to those Olympians who participated in the 1948 Games –the last games to come to London – 64 years ago?
As the world’s top athletes prepare to descend on London once again, photographer Katherine Green tells the tale of the post-war Olympians in a new photographic and oral history exhibition at The Hat Factory.
Katherine said: “I am interested in groups of society who are under-represented, and elderly people are one of those groups who tend to be not very prevalent in the media. It’s important to me to record their memories and personal history, they are very valuable.
“This exhibition is cross-generational – it’s about older people but I want to attract younger people to it, too. I really hope it makes people think twice about how things have changed since 1948 and how little the athletes managed on back then.”
In 1948, athletes were not paid and were training on post-war rations. They also worked full time, so most British athletes were not able to dedicate their time completely to their sport.
Katherine said: “One Olympian I spoke to, basketball player Lionel Price, told me they didn’t train for games, they just used to play after work for fun. They bought all their own kit so they all had different pairs of trainers and looked a bit haphazard.
“I’ve got tickets for one of the London 2012 basketball games myself so it will be really interesting watching it having heard these stories about 1948.”
Katherine has been working on this project for six years and was initially invited to exhibit at the Hat Factory when captain of the 1948 Olympic British Swimming team Roy Romain died.
His nephew Andrew Grays is the head of Luton Culture and he discovered Katherine’s photography online while preparing his uncle’s obituary, and asked if she would bring the show to Luton.
Roy Romain’s widow Maxine attended the launch of the exhibition on Thursday along with 1948 silver medallist hockey player John Peake.
A publication entitled 1948 Olympians by Katherine Green is available from www.unbound.co.uk. Katherine is currently working on a three year commission for the National Portrait Gallery/BT to document community groups in the five Olympic boroughs in the run-up to the games.
Photographs and oral histories are being published on the Road to 2012 website during 2012 and will be exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in June/July 2012.
> The Forgotten Olympians exhibition is at the Hat Factory until June 21, entry is free.
It then goes on tour to London, Rugby and Huddersfield.
