Fatima Whitbread, (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."
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.
Vedad met javelin thrower David Ottley at a stadium and asked him if she could use his javelin. He asked her to wait until the coach arrived. The coach was Margaret Whitbread, a physical education teacher at a local school, whom Vedad had previously met when Whitbread refereed a netball match that she played in. After discovering that Vedad lived at a children's home, Margaret Whitbread passed on some boots and a javelin from a girl who had retired from the event. Three years later, Vedad was adopted by Margaret Whitbread and her family. She spent her teenage years in Chadwell St Mary, Essex, where she attended the Torells School in nearby Grays.
Whitbread won the English Schools' Athletics Championships intermediate title in 1977, and set a national intermediate record of 158 ft 5 in (48.28 m) in winning the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) women's championship the following month. She placed sixth in the javelin throw at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, throwing 49.16 m (161 ft 3+1⁄4 in). Whitbread won gold in the javelin event at the 1979 European Athletics Junior Championships, throwing 58.20 m (190 ft 11+1⁄4 in). She was selected for the 1980 Summer Olympics event, but, achieving only
49.74 m (163 ft 2+1⁄4 in), she failed to qualify for the final. At the 1982 Commonwealth Games, Whitbread took the bronze medal, throwing 58.86 m (193 ft 1+1⁄4 in), which was 5.6 m (18 ft 4+1⁄4 in) behind champion Sue Howland, from Australia.
Having finished behind fellow British competitor Tessa Sanderson in a run of 18 competitions, Whitbread finally defeated her rival with a throw of 62.14 m (203 ft 10+1⁄4 in) to win the UK Athletics Championship in 1983, Whitbread won the silver medal at the inaugural World Championships in 1983, having narrowly qualified for the final. She led throughout the final until Tiina Lillak bettered her mark with her last throw of the contest. A few days before the 1984 Summer Olympics, Whitbread had a stomach operation but was still able to travel to the Games and compete. She finished in the bronze medal position, with 67.14 m (220 ft 3+1⁄4 in), and Sanderson (69.56 m (228 ft 2+1⁄2 in)) won gold. Lillak, who had a stress fracture in her right foot, won the silver medal. After the result, Whitbread commented that "I am so disappointed ... I was not right on the night."
At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in July, Whitbread broke the Games record twice during her first three throws, and led with a distance of 68.54 m (224 ft 10+1⁄4 in), before Sanderson achieved 69.80 m (229 ft 0 in) and won. Whitbread sat down crying on the field after the result for around 30 minutes. After the medal ceremony, she commented, while still visibly upset: "12 years of hard work. Still no [gold] medal ... I've waited two long years since [the 1984 Summer Olympics]. And now I'm humiliated." Sanderson, who had placed behind Whitbread in all of their seven post-1984 Olympics meetings before the Games, said "I don't mind losing to Fatima in the smaller competitions, but not in the big ones."
World record, and European and World championship wins
The following month, Whitbread broke the javelin world record with a throw of 77.44 m (254 ft 3⁄4 in) in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Championships, more than 2 m further than the record set by Petra Felke of East Germany the previous year. She was the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Felke led for the first three rounds, before Whitbread produced a throw of 72.68 m (238 ft 5+1⁄4 in) in the fourth round, and 73.68 m (241 ft 8+3⁄4 in) in the fifth round to win her first major championship gold. Whitbread later wrote that "All the years of training had finally come to something ... I went on my lap of honour ... Spontaneously, I wiggled my hips in happiness, a victory wiggle." The record was beaten by Felke in July 1987 with a throw of 79.80 m (261 ft 9+1⁄2 in).
Whitbread qualified for the final of the 1987 World Championships in second place behind Felke. Her throw of 76.64 m (251 ft 5+1⁄4 in) was, at the time, the third-longest ever, and won her the title ahead of Felke. Sanderson was fourth. Her celebratory wiggles after defeating Felke in the World and European event became well known in the UK. She was voted winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 1987. David Powell wrote in The Times, that "To that practiced smile, she has added the 'Whitbread wiggle'. She is succeeding in bringing personality to her event in the same way that Willie Banks did to the triple jump."
In the months leading up to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Whitbread suffered from several ailments: a shoulder injury, boils, glandular fever and problems with her gums. Whitbread won the silver medal behind Felke, with a throw that, although her best of the season, was some four metres less than her rival. Whitbread commented "If I had to be beaten, I am glad it was by Petra."