Fatima Whitbread

Fatima Whitbread

Medal record
Women’s Athletics
Representing United Kingdom
Olympic Games
	1988 Seoul	Javelin
	1984 Los Angeles	Javelin
World Championships
	1987 Rome	Javelin
	1983 Helsinki	Javelin

Fatima Whitbread MBE (born 3 March 1961 in London) is an English former javelin thrower and multi 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 before finally meeting her mother again. 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.

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 raped Whitbread, again provoking her mother to threaten to cut her throat.

At the age of thirteen she was adopted by the Whitbread family and she spent her teenage years in Chadwell St Mary in 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[2].

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-rival Petra Felke in these events. Her performances in 1987 led to her being voted winner of the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

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 the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles with Whitbread finishing in bronze medal position. In the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Whitbread won the silver medal behind Felke, who had broken the world record in the interim.

In 1997, she married Andrew Norman at Copthorne in Wests Sussex and has a son, Ryan, born in South Africa.

She was once a governor of King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford, which is close to Brentwood where she was living.

Fatima Whitbreads birth mother, my beautiful, loving and kind aunty died on the 19th March 2008 God rest her Soul and give her peace and by God she deserves it after all the suffering she had in her life!!! Yes this is the other side to the story! no disrespect to Fatima my cousin! BUt My aunt came to london from Cyprus to get married at the age of 17 to a man she fell in love with who turned out to be a bigamist and also violent.

She would have had fatima when she was only 19 as she already had a son who was  one and a half years old. Her husband then left her after a couple of years.. . She then re married another waste of space, drug dealing ganster, who was violent and abusive towards her and her children. 

Leaving her no choice but to leave the children at home while she went out to work so that she could take care of her kids.Because at this stage she was now a single mum having to cope on her own!
It was the lady next door who informed the social services about the young children being  left home alone.. . . . . Her children were taken away from her without her consent.
She was aloud to see them on school holidays and weekends, which she did as often as she could. She was a child her self, and so innocent. . . 78.146.196.168 (talk) 01:58, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

However, It was a blessing in disguise that Fatima adopted her self because she would have had a very sad and un happy life which is the opposite to the wonderfully blessed life she has today! She was the lucky one! The one that got away.

Not from an abusive crawl mother as she describes but more from a wonderful woman's un lucky fate of a violent and abusive  husband's, who wanted absolutely nothing to do with his  children. 

As my aunts sufferings continued her health especially her heart weakend til she passed away. . . . . . . . She loved you Fatima and always kept you close to her heart. She was very proud of you!

External links

• Thurrock Local History Society - Fatima Whitbread

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