INTERVIEW WIETH ANYIKA ONUORA

‘What was it like to compete as a female athlete compared to your male teammates and fellow competitors?’

‘There were some good parts and there were some crappy parts. I would say that the biggest difference between males and females is financial. When I began competing in the sprint events, I realised that the men’s 100m is the main event in the eyes of event organisers, the ‘blue-ribbon’ event. When it came to me competing abroad or to the prize money, being female was always an issue. Sometimes you wouldn’t get paid the same based purely on the fact that you were a woman.

‘People assume that men and women in the same sport are treated equally, but when it comes down to finances it’s a completely different ball game. I remember one meet where I went to run the 100m and 200m. In the 100m, I ran a personal best, breaking the track record for the meet and winning the race. In the 200m, I broke the track record and also won my race. Back then they had time bonuses, so that if you won in a certain time, you would get an additional bonus on top of your prize money. I hit five bonuses between the two events but when I went to the room to collect my prize money, the meet director only decided to pay me for the 100m. He didn’t pay for the 200m and he didn’t pay my bonuses. I refused to leave the room until I was paid, but was told to take it up with my agent. More annoyingly, there was a guy there who competed in the 100m after me. He didn’t run that quickly at all and he didn’t get any track records or bonus points. But he was paid on top of what he was initially going to get for the 100m alone.

This is what I mean when I say there isn’t equality, even when you do the same sport or even the same event.’

‘Did you notice any differences as a black female athlete compared with white female athletes?’

‘Yes, I was definitely treated differently as a black woman in sport compared with white women. There’s a lot of conversations around desirability politics. Black women are often seen at the bottom end of the spectrum in terms of desirability. When it came to being a black woman in sport, I felt I had to present myself in a different way so as not to come across as a stereotypical black woman. You’re trying to be light and delicate, and that’s not me. I’ve always tried to just be myself and hope that people gravitate towards me regardless.

‘But when it comes to the treatment of black girls and white girls in sport, it’s different because white women are seen as more desirable by those in power and with the finances. I personally had an experience where I saw a white female athlete come into the sport and doing really well. She was a lovely, lovely girl, but very naive in the differences between us financially. She was world champion over several years, winning lots of medals, but she also gained lots of endorsements outside of track and field. Clothing endorsements, car endorsements, food endorsements. She also got to work with amazing charities and invited to some amazing events.

‘It was all about her marketability as a white sprinter in a sport dominated by black athletes, but black athletes just didn’t have the same opportunities. It was difficult for me to see, but it became the norm. People can say it’s not based on your race or your ability, but when you find out that white athletes are on more money than black athletes, running the same events with similar times and on a similar trajectory, the maths doesn’t work. Seeing that, and being a part of it, isn’t a nice experience.’

‘How important do you think it is to have more black representation within sport – from athletes to coaches to managers?’

It’s very important. I had a lot more male white coaches in my career, but I also got to work with some incredible black coaches, both male and female. But it was always a case where I felt, and you could see it, that they had to work ten times harder than the white coaches, even though they were performing as coaches just as well as the white ones. I think there needs to be more black coaches and staff in positions of power rather than always hiring white coaches, which sometimes drives organisations to hire from overseas rather than promote a black person. It took George Floyd and Breonna Taylor to be murdered in order for certain organisations to understand the severity of not having people in positions of power who are black. It felt like they were clutching at straws when these headlines hit, because half the team was black, but they didn’t have anyone of colour who looked like those athletes in managerial and leadership positions. So, don’t wait until black people get murdered in order to make noise and make change.

A couple of weeks ago I did a talk for an organisation and it was about diversity and inclusion and I asked them who’s in your team and they were all white women. I said: “ok, that’s not an issue but you’re asking me as a black woman to come in and speak about diversity: what are you doing in your own house to make change happen? Is it not better to clean up your own house before you tell others what they should do?” Not only were there no people of colour, but there was no one from the LGBTQ community and no one with a disability. So I said: “you can’t scream that we need to do X, Y and Z when the leading team is made up of white women alone. You’re not caring about LGBTQ people, you’re not caring about people who look different, you’re not caring about people who have a disability. It goes beyond we want you to come in and speak. There needs to be action.”

‘I knew I wanted to be part of the change. When I began writing my book,[4] I went on a course with the FA and it was called On the Board training. It involved a lot of ex-footballers from Premiership down to Conference league who had been trained and part of a board for the last year. They talked through what it was like to sit on a board, what types of discussions are had as the CEO, as a non-executive director, as a trustee, as a committee member. They talked through what it was like so that we could learn and then go into these positions. At the moment, we have the same people making the top decisions that may impact a lot of people, but they don’t really know what’s going on for the people they serve. So, change needs to happen. I was adamant that I wanted to be involved and I wanted to be that change. I am now currently a governor for one of the schools in Liverpool. I was also offered many board positions.

‘I feel like people like me deserve to have their voices heard and I am all about creating change. I love challenging people on their decision-making. Before I was pretty scared about it, whereas now I’m forced to, as a board member. Change needs to happen. It is happening, but it’s very slow. I do believe we will get there eventually, and it takes representation to make that happen.’

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Making difficult decisions in the lead up to a major event - how do you know what really matters?

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