Kevin Burns

At Montréal in 1976, Kevin Burns made history as the first black swimmer to represent Great Britain at the Olympics.

Burns was the son of Wallace Burns, one of many British Hondurans who came to England in 1942 to work under a scheme organized by the Ministry of Labour. Kevin was breaking swimming records from an early age, and in 1968 his British junior 100 metres freestyle record of 1:00.3 stood for five years. He went on to win various junior age group national titles, and in 1970 became the first black swimmer to appear for Great Britain when he competed for GBR’s juniors against Netherlands’s juniors. A few months later Burns became the first British black swimmer to win a senior England cap, in the triangular match with Scotland and Wales. He was just 14-years-old at the time.

Having made his senior Great Britain début in the match against the Netherlands and United States at Crystal Palace in 1972, Burns joined the British squad in training for the München Olympics but, unfortunately, he never made the trip.

It was a different story four years later when Burns was selected for the 1976 Montréal Olympics. He finished fourth in his 100 free heat, won by the eventual gold medallist Jim Montgomery. Burns had to then go into a two-man swim off for the 16th and final semi-final place, but was beaten by the Soviet swimmer Andrey Bogdanov. Burns was classified in 17th place. In the 4x100 medley relay, Burns swam in the heat that saw Great Britain reach the final in a new British record time, but Burns was replaced by Brian Brinkley for the final, in which Britain finished fourth.

Burns set a British 100 free record of 53.11 at the Olympics, and then followed that with his only individual ASA title a month later. Burns’ only major international medal came at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, when he was part of the English team that won the 4x100 freestyle relay bronze medal.