While I was growing up, Fatmia Whitbread was a household name. But I never knew half of what she has written in her autobiography. Abandoned at birth, she survived being left in an empty appartment for three days before neighbours heard her crying and called the police. Brought up by the social services, she went back to her biological mother as a teenager, only to be raped by one of her mothers’ boyfriends.
However, she rose above these horrible experiences to become one of the greatest javelin throwers the world has ever seen. You can read about it in her autobiography (affiliate links: UK
Fatima Whitbread
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Wow, that’s harsh
Indeed, and Fatima spends a considerable amount of time in her autobiography covering her early childhood, from the days with the social services through the difficult period when she was being reintroduced to her biological mother and the final, far happier time with the Whitbreads.
It’s a gruelling read to begin with, as you might imagine, but things quickly get much rosier once Margaret Whitbread helped her develop her passion for the javelin and, seemingly, within months she was representing the UK. She quickly made a mark, despite her young age.
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Fatima makes a mark
At 18, she flew to Canada for the 1978 Commonweath Games as the British number two behind 23-year old Tessa Sanderson. Tessa won, as expected, and Fatima was pleased with sixth in her first international competition.
Later that year, Fatima threw in the European Junior Championships, in Poland. After a minor disagreement with one of the other players, she found that she was able to channel her anger into a winning throw, beating her own personal best by 2m.
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And meets some legendary British athletes
During this time, Fatima got to meet many of the best British athletes.
She speaks of Geoff Capes as a big brother. She describes walking in on Seb Coe after his defeat at the hands of Steve Ovett in the 1980 Moscow Olympics 800m, his chosen event.
Fatima found Coe lying on his bed crying his eyes out. Of couse, he cheered up after winning gold in the 1,500m a few days later, but at the time he was distraught. This was her first experience with the pain of losing. Before this, she had been happy to take part.
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Fatima becomes world number two
The 1980 Moscow Olympics had been a bad experience for both Fatima and the UK number one, Tessa Sanderson. But fortunately, Fatima did not have to wait until the next Olympics to take on the world because the International Association of Athletics Federations decided to create a World Championships, which was launched in 1983.
Fatima went to Helsinki, despite suffering tonsilitis and a nagging back injury. Digging deep, she threw 69.14m, which was good for second place behind the world record holder, Finnish Tiina Lillak, who threw just under 71m, a fraction under the record of 72.40m. Despite not expecting to achieve silver, Fatima now knew the pain of defeat and cried, as Seb Coe had before.
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Illness defeats Fatima at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics
Despite this success, yet another bout of bad luck meant that Fatima had needed three surgical operations in the run up to the 1984 Olympic games. Competing against her doctors’ orders, she watched her UK rival Tessa Sanderson win gold and Tiina Lillak take silver.
It was a small consolation to receive the bronze medal.
And Tessa continued to win. She took the gold at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and Fatima again took the silver medal. Coupled with a sudden, severe illness in her adopted family, things looked bleak for Fatima.
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Shattering the world record
But very often, the lowest periods of an athlete’s career precede the very highest.
Just four weeks after the defeat at the 1986 Commonweath Games, Fatima had collected her thoughts and was at peace with herself. She was there to throw and not to prove anything. She focused on her technique and channelled all of her frustration into a tremendous effort.
So how far did she throw? The world record back at the 1983 World Championships was 72.40m and it had crept up, inperceptibly to 75.40m, a record set by Petra Felke. However, most of the best throwers were coming in at 69 – 70m at that time.
On 28 August 1986, Fatima Whitbread threw 77.44m in the opening rounds to anhilate the current record with the longest distance a javelin had ever been thrown by a woman.
Her main competitor, the East German, Petra Felke was phlegmatic and predicted that she would still win the final. Provoked, Fatima went out and threw 76.32m, the second furthest distance a javelin had ever been thrown by a woman. Her point made, she returned home, the first Briton to hold a world record in a throwing event.
(Many people might note that this accolade should have belonged to Geoff Capes but he never quite got his head in the right place).
Fatima followed up her success with gold at the second World Championships in 1987, throwing an astounding 76.64m.
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Training and nutrition
Fatima discusses training very little in the book, although she does mention bench pressing 95kg as part of her training, as well as doing more sports-specific weights exercises and plyometrics with a 4kg medicine ball to develop her explosive throwing power.
She also discusses the importance of eating a large amount of protein, supplied by her local butcher.
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Wrapping up
Fatima Whitbread was a great British athlete and the first British athlete to hold a world record. She writes well about overcoming severe adversity in early life to become world record holder and she has some great insights into the British athletic scene of the 1980′s.
You can pick up your copy of her autobiography here ((affiliate links: UK
