ALMERE - The statue of swimming champion Enith Brigitha will be unveiled tomorrow in Almere.
Brigitha was the first black woman to win an Olympic medal for the Netherlands. During her swimming career she won no less than 21 Dutch titles.
The now 67-year-old swimmer won bronze at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. It turned out afterward that Brigitha from Curaçao, who has lived in the Netherlands since she was fifteen, had actually won gold. The East Germans she swam against are said to have used doping.
Thanks to donors, there is now a statue in Almere, where the swimmer has lived for twenty years. Visual artist Patrick Mezas is the creator of the statue.
Photo credit: Sam Jones Production