Fatima Whitbread, MBE (née Vedad; born 3 March 1961) is a British retired javelin thrower.

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.

Whitbread's later career was affected by a long-term shoulder injury, which she believed dated back to her world record throw in 1986.

After being rescued, severely malnourished, "I spent the next 14 years living in institutions, among other traumatised children",[5] occasionally being left in the care of her abusive biological mother.

[1] 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.

After discovering that Vedad stayed at a children's home, Margaret Whitbread passed on some boots and a javelin from a girl who had retired from the event.

[4] She spent her teenage years in Chadwell St Mary, Essex, where she attended the Torells School in nearby Grays.

[11] Whitbread won gold in the javelin event at the 1979 European Athletics Junior Championships, throwing 58.20 m (190 ft 11+1⁄4 in).

[11][14] 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,[15][16] Whitbread won the silver medal at the inaugural World Championships in 1983, having narrowly qualified for the final.

"[20] 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.

"[29] 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.

"[31] Whitbread's later career was affected by a long-term shoulder injury, which she believed dated back to her world record throw in 1986.

[1][32] Alan Hubbard wrote in a 1990 article in The Observer about Whitbread and Sanderson that "their hate-hate relationship has been one of the most enduring in British sport," lasting almost a decade.

[33] In 2009, Tom Lamont commented in The Guardian that "Whitbread and Sanderson were always uneasy rivals and the enmity that developed during their overlapping careers became as famous as their achievements, and seems to survive in their retirement.

"[34] Hubbard cited Sanderson's perception that Whitbread received preferential treatment from the British Amateur Athletic Board.

The Board's promotions officer, Andy Norman, who had a role in setting British athletes' fees, was a family friend of Whitbread and her mother.

[33][39] During their respective careers, Whitbread gained one world and one European title; Sanderson won an Olympic and three Commonwealth golds.

[51][52] Whitbread received the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award, for "outstanding achievement in the face of adversity".

[53] Whitbread has been a guest on television programmes including A Question of Sport (on which she first appeared in 1984),[54] The Little and Large Show (1987 and 1988)[55][56] and The Wright Stuff (2012).

The series featured the celebrities' own reflections, and also highlighted specific children, inviting viewers to contact the programme if they were interesting in fostering or adopting them.

[67][68] In 2023, she appeared in I'm a Celebrity... South Africa, placing third again after losing the penultimate trial to camp mates Jordan Banjo and Myleene Klass.