I remember a coach telling me, ‘Anyika, you’re so strong no guy will ever try to rape you’. How wrong he was...
IN HER NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY OLYMPIC SPRINTER ANYIKA ONUORA REVEALS HER EXPERIENCE OF DAY-TO-DAY RACISM AND HARROWING SEXUAL ASSAULTS
ANYIKA ONUORA won Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth sprinting and relay medals during 12 years competing for Great Britain and England.
Her podium highs contrasted starkly with her day-to-day experiences of racism and sexual assaults.
In her breathtaking autobiography, My Hidden Race, Anyika, 37, from Liverpool, tells all and in this disturbing excerpt she outlines the attempted rape she suffered during an athletic meeting…
“ARE YOU following me up?” he said, laughing.
“No, I think you’re following me up, lad,” I responded.
I was in a lift heading up to my hotel room. It was near the end of a relatively successful season and I knew this sportsman, so it felt appropriate to exchange some innocent banter after we both pressed the lift button simultaneously.
I’d recently clocked my fastest time of the season and there was a lavish post-race banquet laid on that evening that was Gatsby-esque.
I was only drinking soft drinks to stay clear-headed before an early flight the next day. I also had a season to finish. The first bus back to the hotel was 9pm and I had just a few more hours of this event to go.
It was later on that evening that I saw the man I’d met in the lift. He was drinking a lot and clearly enjoying himself. I was chatting to other athletes, just enjoying the scenery.
But this sportsman was coming over to me frequently, asking me to dance. Each time I politely said “no”.
Eventually, I told him that it was 9pm and I was going to catch the bus home. He grabbed my waist quite strongly and slurred that I was going to miss an amazing night. I removed his hands, said goodbye and went to get on the bus.
The hotel was old. You could hear athletes returning from the night out as the floorboards strained under their footsteps. I heard someone trying to open my door without knocking but I wasn’t seriously worried. I thought it might be one of the girls next door trying to get into the wrong room.
The door knob initially rattled softly, then suddenly it was being shaken aggressively. In a few seconds, the door was forced open. I was lying in bed with the covers up but immediately I sensed who it was. It was the sportsman from the lift. I wasn’t scared; I was seriously annoyed.
I had a flight to catch tomorrow, he was obviously completely p***ed and I wasn’t in the mood for his nonsense.
In a split second, he grabbed me aggressively and suddenly I was scared.
Now he was holding my wrists tightly and his fingernails were piercing the thin skin on my wrists.
I tried to fight him off as he tried to get on top of me. I had always been renowned for my physical strength on the track, but it was useless against this man. I remember a coach once telling me as a young woman, “Anyika, you’re so strong no guy will ever try to rape you.” How wrong that man was.
Time really started to move slowly. He had my arms pinned with his knees and my wrists were above my head. He had one hand directly on my throat.
My body was filled with shock. I tried to scream, but his tight grip made it impossible. He told me to shut up and stop fighting this. I tried to wrestle him off once more, terrified at what was going to happen next. I was completely helpless.
With my last bit of energy, I tried to throw him off me once more. It was hopeless. Just as the rape was going to take place, I knew that I had one last chance to stop the horror.
I was having an out-of-body experience. I was utterly exhausted from physically fighting a sportsman far stronger than me. I no longer had the strength in my arms to hold him off me. I had almost nothing left physically, but I had no choice but to keep going.
I told myself, “Just keep fighting with everything, Anyika. Fight him. Fight. Fight. Fight”. For a brief moment, he released his left knee which was pinning down my right leg. I counted to three, and managed to kick him as hard as I could.
The hard bone of my knee connected solidly with his genitals. He screamed in pain and rolled off my body. I jumped off the bed immediately and yelled at him to get out of the room. I stood shaking at what had just happened.
Stumbling, he went to leave the room, but the door wouldn’t open.
When he had forced it open, he managed to break the old lock springs in the door. We were locked in. I started banging on the door and screaming, not wanting to be stuck in a room with this man for a second longer. Nobody answered.
I was terrified and banged the door until my hands were in agony. He sat on a chair with his head down, not trying to help. It was 4am and thankfully the hotel concierge heard the commotion.
He managed to contact an emergency locksmith. I was stuck in this room with a man who had attempted to rape me, for one hour while we waited to be released.
Eventually, a sleepy locksmith prised open the door and the sportsman left quickly.
I took a shower to try and calm myself down. The water was scalding hot and I rubbed soap on my body furiously as if I could cleanse it from rape. I knew that no amount of soap would wipe clean the memory of what has happened.
I never told a single person in authority, not the police, not British Athletics, not anyone.
IT began as a campaign to raise awareness of disabled employees and now PurpleLightUp is illuminating the world.
“It’s wonderful,” says Kate Nash, of PurpleSpace. “Each year the event gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Buildings and landmarks around the world are being illuminated in purple light as part of PurpleLightUp – a global movement that celebrates and draws attention to the economic contribution of the 386 million disabled employees around the world.
PurpleSpace leads this movement and last year the campaign had the largest purple global footprint ever, with more than 300 organisations taking part and more than 250 million people following on social media.
Kate says: “Some of my favourite light-ups have been the London Eye, Niagara Falls was pretty impressive as well, and the Google Tower in South Africa. It is just one of those great moments. We have beautiful purple lights the world over.
“It’s become enormous, each year more people and organisations get involved. Back in the day, we would be running around for 24 hours dropping in on events.”
She laughs: “It’s a curse and a blessing but PurpleLightUp has just captured the imagination of people worldwide. I wrote in my latest book that you cannot put toothpaste back in a tube. There are certain things that take on a life of their own and cannot be stopped.”
Kate says the campaign creates a space for meaningful dialogue and gets companies and people of all levels, manner and severity of disability talking.
She says some people are hesitant to talk to disabled work colleagues because they do not want to be “a numpty” by putting their foot in it and saying the wrong thing, but more companies are now making some major changes in the workplace and helping to break down barriers.
Kate says: “A lot of disabled people would tie themselves in knots in the past about medical appointments and would feel their employer was doing them a favour rather than it being something to which they are entitled.”
Kate launched PurpleSpace in 2015 as the world’s first professional development hub for disabled employee networks, bringing together 850,000 disabled employees.
Her work has led to her being awarded an OBE for services to disabled people and she was appointed Ambassador to Disability Rights UK in 2013.
Kate herself has had arthritis since she was a teenager and has had hip and knee replacements, so she knows first hand the difficulties some people can face. PurpleLightUp has been honouring and highlighting the work of disabled employees since 2017 with iconic landmarks, such as Vienna’s Parliament and New Scotland Yard all going purple. Politicians have also made speeches in relation to #PurpleLightUp and disability inclusion in their respective parliaments. PurpleSpace say they are building disability confidence from the inside out and December 3 is also the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which celebrates the economic contribution of disabled employees.
Kate says: “There is still a long way to go, but in the last 10 years we have seen a lot of employers doing a lot more, there has been a real change. Disabled employees are also sharing their stories and it’s lovely to be able to celebrate with PurpleLightUp.”
Social business chief Kate Nash explains to MARION McMULLEN how proud she is to see the world shining a light on disability rights