Fatima Whitbread's Biography

She was abandoned as a baby, when her biological mother left her in a flat and after a few days a neighbour noticed the noise she was making and rang the police.

Fatima Whitbread took up the javelin from an early age, and coached by her adoptive mother, she reached the highest levels.

Together with Petra Falke and fellow Briton Tessa Sanderson, they dominated the javelin event in the mid-1980s.

She won a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics games and a silver medal in 1988 in Seoul.

Her other accolades include setting a world record for the javelin in 1986, and becoming world champion in 1987.

She was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1987. In the same year she was awarded the MBE.

Fatima Whitbread retired from javelin throwing in 1992.

In 1997, Whitbread married the controversial promotions officer for the British Athletics Federation, Andy Norman, with whom she had a son. Andy Norman died in 2007.

In 2011, Fatima Whitbread was one of celebrities selected for I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

In 2020, she was one of the celebrities featured in the BBC documentary series Pilgrimage: The Road To Istanbul.

In 2023, she won the Helen Rollason Award at the Sports Peronality of the Year awards.