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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.
Dec 19, 2023 · When that javelin was accidentally thrown through the window of the children's home, Fatima was grounded for a month but managed to sneak a note to Margaret.
Dec 19, 2023 · Former javelin world champion Fatima Whitbread has been honoured with the Helen Rollason Award at Sports Personality of the Year 2023. Whitbread, now 62, spent the first 14 years of her life in...
Fatima’s list of achievements is almost never ending – she’s a world-record-breaking javelin thrower, who made the Olympic squad at just 16 – the youngest ever person to make the team at the time.
She blossomed into a talented javelin thrower under her adoptive mother’s guidance and proved her mettle by winning a bronze medal at the 1984 Olympics and a silver four years later. Her career was on the rise and she became the World Champion in 1987.
Margaret Whitbread was the National Javelin Coach and discovered that her daughter had a raw talent and flair to become a javelin thrower. Developing these gifts, Fatima became the first British thrower to win a European Junior (Under-20) Championships title in 1979 in Poland.
Fatima Whitbread’s national titles include WAAA Junior Champion (U17) and 6 time WAAA Champion, along with European Junior Champion, medalling at successive Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Games between 1982 and 1988 and breaking the women’s javelin world record in 1986.
