Olympic archive: steeplechaser Chris Brasher (1957)
After winning gold in the Melbourne 3,000 metres steeplechase, Chris Brasher, a US oil company employee, stopped off in the States on his way home – finally returning to the UK on 9 January 1957.
The Melbourne summer Olympics of 1956 began on 22 November and ended on 8 December, which meant the majority of the British team were able to get back home in time for Christmas, writes Ian Searcey.
One notable exception was the 3000 metres steeplechase gold medallist Chris Brasher, who finally arrived back in London to show off his medal on 9 January 1957. ITN reporter John Hartley met Brasher at the airport to find out the reason behind the delayed return and his plans for the future.
As he was working for an oil company at the time, Brasher had stopped off in the USA to check on some operations en route for the UK, and he apologises for not bringing back a tanker of petrol with him.
Although he plans to carry on running for fun, Brasher admits he is giving up competitive sport. He says he plans to do more mountaineering and, possibly, some winter sports – although he is not sure he will get much free time, having “rather mortgaged (his) holidays” for the Games.
A man with a long and distinguished sporting career, Brasher had been one of Roger Bannister’s pacemakers in 1954 – alongside future ITN newsreader Chris Chataway – when the Oxford medical student ran the first sub-four minute mile.
An early pioneer of the Norwegian sport of orienteering, Brasher went on to become a reporter for BBC’s Tonight programme and sports editor of the Observer newspaper. In 1981, he co-founded the London Marathon with fellow Olympic steeplechaser John Disley. He died in 2003.
