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Sport and the Press • 91

storyline to emphasise disturbance in her upbringing: ‘like some of our other Olym-
pic winners, Holmes is a success story from a broken home’ (Smith 2004: 3). The
article combined reports of a happy home life with references to ‘domestic fl ux’ and
lack of contact with ‘her biological father’. The article reported that her mother did
not possess a passport (and could not therefore be present at her daughter’s victory in
Athens), thereby subtly conjuring an image parochialism for Holmes, in contrast to
the international travellers to be found amongst The Observer readership. As Skeggs
(2004: 112) observed, a ‘way of signifying unmodernity is through spatial fi xity,
through not being mobile’.
Yet Hills and Kennedy (2009) observed that Holmes herself had none of the
characteristics that the newspapers associated with her parents. This narrative of
uncontrolled and turbulent working-class origins contrasted with other reports of
her self-discipline and work ethic. Holmes had lived with Mutola in South Africa,
a long way from her mother’s house in the village of Hildenborough, England, and
competed all over the world. The attempt to construct her as somebody’s daughter is
contradicted by her reported lack of interest in her ‘biological father’ and her moth-
er’s statement that ‘I was never out for saying you have to do this or that; Kelly’s
done it for herself’ (as cited in Smith 2004: 3). Similarly, there was a striking contra-
diction between the descriptions of Holmes as both a ‘geriatric’ and a ‘little girl’.
Both Smith in The Observer and Hughes in The Sunday Times discussed ‘specu-
lation’ (Smith 2004: 3; Hughes 2004: 15) about her relationship with Mutola. Both
papers carefully avoided an outright suggestion of the existence of anything more
than a training partnership or friendship between them, but talked about ‘gossip’
(Hughes 2004: 15; Smith 2004: 3). Hills and Kennedy (2009) argued that the ru-

mours of a lesbian relationship made it difficult for the papers to fit her into a narra-

tive of heterosexual femininity. Interestingly, the tabloids made no attempt to do so,
but The Observer tracked down ‘Holmes’ childhood sweetheart, Simon Wixen, now
a 34-year old computer analyst’ (Smith 2004: 3), who appeared unwilling to discuss
the question of Holmes’s sexual orientation.

The Long Road to Glory: Heroism, Race and Nation

The Observer headline accompanying its feature article read, ‘Victory for a Very
Modern Heroine’ (Smith 2004: 3). There was a series of images accompanying
the article with the caption ‘The long road to glory’, which required the reader to

construct a narrative to fill the gaps. The main image was of Holmes immediately
after her success, raising the British Union Jack flag above her head. Three smaller

photographs showed Holmes in different scenes: Holmes as a child in the back gar-
den of a typical, working-class house with a white boy and a dog (the boy was her
‘childhood sweetheart’); Holmes as a young woman smiling in her army uniform;
and Holmes with her mother, posing with an honour she received from the Queen for