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Fatima Whitbread
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Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread, MBE (née Vedad; born 3 March 1961) is a British retired javelin thrower. She broke the world record with a throw of 77.44 m (254 ft 3⁄4 in) in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, and became the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Whitbread went on to win the European title that year, and took the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. She is also a two-time Olympic medallist, winning bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics and silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She won the same medals, respectively, in the Commonwealth Games of 1982 and 1986.
After a difficult early childhood, Fatima Vedad was adopted by the family of Margaret Whitbread, a javelin coach. Whitbread won the 1977 English Schools' Athletics Championships intermediate title, and was selected for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, where she finished sixth. The following year, she took gold at the 1979 European Athletics Junior Championships. During her career, she had a well-publicised rivalry with another British javelin athlete, Tessa Sanderson. Whitbread's later career was affected by a long-term shoulder injury, which she believed dated back to her world record throw in 1986. The 1990 UK Athletics Championships was the last event in which she participated, sustaining a further shoulder injury there. In 1992 she formally retired from competition.
She was named the Sports Writers' Association Sportswoman of the Year in 1986 and 1987. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1987 Birthday Honours, for services to athletics. She was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1987 and received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award in 2023 in recognition of her triumph over the adversity of her childhood, and her continued work on behalf of other children in care environments.
In later years, Whitbread has appeared on several television programmes, including I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2011 and 2023, in which she finished in third place both times.
Whitbread was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Roehampton in September 2025.
Fatima Vedad was born on 3 March 1961 in Stoke Newington, London, to an unmarried Turkish Cypriot mother and Greek Cypriot father. She said "I was abandoned as a baby and left to die in our flat." After being rescued, severely malnourished, "I spent the next 14 years living in institutions, among other traumatised children", occasionally being left in the care of her abusive biological mother. In a 2003 interview with The Observer, she said, "It was a nightmare of a childhood and it was only because I loved sport so much that I got through it and met my true [adoptive] mother."
Some credit for my choice of sport must go to the javelin itself. It is not only a magical event, it is a beautiful one. The flight of the javelin is a glorious sight, and, as I very soon discovered, letting go was a fantastic feeling.
Vedad started throwing the javelin aged 11. According to her account, she had taken up an interest in track and field events after being inspired by the myth of Atalanta, "whom no man could outrun except by cheating, and whose javelin killed a terrible monster"; and by Mary Peters, who won the gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics' women's pentathlon.
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Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread, MBE (née Vedad; born 3 March 1961) is a British retired javelin thrower. She broke the world record with a throw of 77.44 m (254 ft 3⁄4 in) in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, and became the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Whitbread went on to win the European title that year, and took the gold medal at the 1987 World Championships. She is also a two-time Olympic medallist, winning bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics and silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics. She won the same medals, respectively, in the Commonwealth Games of 1982 and 1986.
After a difficult early childhood, Fatima Vedad was adopted by the family of Margaret Whitbread, a javelin coach. Whitbread won the 1977 English Schools' Athletics Championships intermediate title, and was selected for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, where she finished sixth. The following year, she took gold at the 1979 European Athletics Junior Championships. During her career, she had a well-publicised rivalry with another British javelin athlete, Tessa Sanderson. Whitbread's later career was affected by a long-term shoulder injury, which she believed dated back to her world record throw in 1986. The 1990 UK Athletics Championships was the last event in which she participated, sustaining a further shoulder injury there. In 1992 she formally retired from competition.
She was named the Sports Writers' Association Sportswoman of the Year in 1986 and 1987. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1987 Birthday Honours, for services to athletics. She was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1987 and received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award in 2023 in recognition of her triumph over the adversity of her childhood, and her continued work on behalf of other children in care environments.
In later years, Whitbread has appeared on several television programmes, including I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2011 and 2023, in which she finished in third place both times.
Whitbread was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Roehampton in September 2025.
Fatima Vedad was born on 3 March 1961 in Stoke Newington, London, to an unmarried Turkish Cypriot mother and Greek Cypriot father. She said "I was abandoned as a baby and left to die in our flat." After being rescued, severely malnourished, "I spent the next 14 years living in institutions, among other traumatised children", occasionally being left in the care of her abusive biological mother. In a 2003 interview with The Observer, she said, "It was a nightmare of a childhood and it was only because I loved sport so much that I got through it and met my true [adoptive] mother."
Some credit for my choice of sport must go to the javelin itself. It is not only a magical event, it is a beautiful one. The flight of the javelin is a glorious sight, and, as I very soon discovered, letting go was a fantastic feeling.
Vedad started throwing the javelin aged 11. According to her account, she had taken up an interest in track and field events after being inspired by the myth of Atalanta, "whom no man could outrun except by cheating, and whose javelin killed a terrible monster"; and by Mary Peters, who won the gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics' women's pentathlon.
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