DIY Olympic runner Jack Braughton: I made it to the Games in 1948Reported by Metro.co.uk on Wednesday, 25 April 2012 (on April 25, 2012)
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*DIY Olympic runner Jack Braughton made it to the 1948 Games without any lucrative sponsorship deals, Lottery funding, professional coaches or nutritionists.
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Jack flash: Jack Braughton shows a clean pair of heels in his heyday (Picture: Cascade)
When London last hosted the Games in the summer of 1948, it was strictly amateur hour.
Jack Braughton was aiming for glory in the three-mile race.
But when he asked his boss for some time off from his building job, he was told: ‘If he wants to run it will be in his own time.’
Mr Braughton, now 91, said: ‘I was quite lucky because my event was on a Saturday so I only had to take half a day off work.
‘I got the bus to the Underground and then the Tube to Wembley.
‘Then I went in to register and did my race and went home. It was just another athletics meet to me. My wife didn’t come to watch, she wasn’t interested. And my mother was offered tickets by her local paper but she turned them down.’
Dubbed the Austerity Games, Britain was still coping with rationing, a housing shortage caused by bombing and no spare cash to build sport venues or an Olympic village.
Proud: Mr Braughton is now 91 (Picture: Cascade)
Mr Braughton, from Bromley, south London, was 27 when he raced but finished a disappointing eighth in his heat.
He said: ‘I wasn’t fit enough on the day. I wanted a coach but they couldn’t supply one.
‘I would have liked to be able to train as hard as I could but work had to take first place.
‘We didn’t really prepare ourselves for the Olympics, we were beaten by the teams who didn’t go to war.’
Mr Braughton has yet to decide whether he will attend the Games this summer despite all members of the 1948 team being offered tickets to see their events.
He said: ‘It will bring back some memories but I’m a better competitor than a spectator.’
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