- Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread MBE (born
3 March 1961 inLondon ) is an English former javelin thrower and multiple medal-winner.Early life
Abandoned in a north London flat as a baby by her
Turkish Cypriot mother, Whitbread spent many unloving years in and out of children's homes. It transpired that she (Whitbread's mother) had conceived Whitbread as a result of an affair with a Greek Cypriot, resulting in her being disowned by her friends and naming her son as the father on the birth certificate. [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,904199,00.html Triumph and despair: Fatima Whitbread | Sport | The Observer] ]Her mother was violent towards her from the first day that they met, threatening to cut her throat if she didn't look after her brother and sister while she [Whitbread's mother] went out to meet men, one of whom drunkenly
rape d Whitbread, again provoking her mother to threaten to cut her throat. [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,904199,00.html Triumph and despair: Fatima Whitbread | Sport | The Observer] ]At the age of thirteen she was adopted by the Whitbread family and she spent her teenage years in
Chadwell St Mary ,Essex after her mother asked the family to take her daughter when it became clear that she was spending a lot of time with sports coach Margaret. [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,904199,00.html]Career
She broke the World Record with a throw of 77.44m in the qualifying round of the
1986 European Championships in Athletics (where she also won the final) and became World Champion in 1987. She became well-known in the UK for her celebratory wiggle after defeating arch-rivalPetra Felke in these events. Her performances in 1987 led to her being voted winner of the prestigiousBBC Sports Personality of the Year award. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/spl/hi/tv_and_radio/02/sport_personality/past_winners/html/1984.stm BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1987] ]Whitbread had previously won the silver medal at the inaugural World Championships in 1983. She was also well known for her rivalry with fellow English javelin thrower
Tessa Sanderson , who won the gold medal at the1984 Summer Olympics inLos Angeles with Whitbread finishing in bronze medal position. In the 1988 Olympics inSeoul , Whitbread won the silver medal behind Felke, who had broken the world record in the interim.Later life
In 1997, she married Andrew Norman at Copthorne in West Sussex and has a son, Ryan, born in
South Africa . Norman, who represented many athletes professionally, died in 2007.She was once a governor of King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, which is close to Brentwood where she was living.
References
External links
* [http://www.thurrock-community.org.uk/historysoc/fatima1.htm Thurrock Local History Society - Fatima Whitbread]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
