Sanderson won gold medals in the javelin throw at three Commonwealth Games (1978, 1986 and 1990) and at the 1992 IAAF World Cup.

Outside athletics, Sanderson has made several guest television appearances, and was a sports reporter for Sky News when it began broadcasting in 1989.

[4] Sanderson was a member of Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club, competing in the javelin throw and multi-event disciplines.

[1] In July 1977, at the European Cup semi-finals in Dublin, she threw 67.20 m (220 ft 5+1⁄2 in) – a national record and the second-longest distance by a woman at the time.

[10] Selected for the 1980 Summer Olympics, she failed to meet the qualifying standard for the final, reaching only 48.76 m (159 ft 11+1⁄2 in) with her first throw and having her other two attempts declared no-throws.

[11] After the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, Sanderson asked Wilf Paish of the Carnegie Institute of Physical Education in Leeds to become her coach,[2] and lived with his family once he agreed.

It was the third-longest throw by a woman at the time, when the record was 74.76 m (245 ft 3+1⁄4 in) thrown by Tiina Lillak of Finland ten days previously.

[16][17] Sanderson finished fourth at the 1983 World Championships; another British competitor, Fatima Whitbread, who was coming to the fore as her rival, won silver.

[22] Sanderson wrote in her 1986 autobiography that following her Olympic victory, she had not intended to compete in the following athletics season, but she did take part in several competitions after being persuaded by her management company IMG to do so.

Although she finished behind Whitbread in five successive meetings, Sanderson did produce the fourth-longest women's javelin throw of the year.

[25] At the Dairy Crest Games in August, Whitbread (who had been undefeated during the season) injured her shoulder; Sanderson won the event.

[27] About ten days before participating in the 1988 Summer Olympics as defending champion, Sanderson burst the skin around her ankle and exposed her Achilles tendon.

[30] Sanderson announced after the 1988 Olympics that she would retire from the javelin throw, but made an unexpected return to competition in 1989[31] at the McVitie's International Challenge; she finished third.

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

[12] 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 and coach, Margaret.

[43][42] Margaret Whitbread was also the national coach for women's javelin in 1985, when her daughter participated in many international events while Sanderson only competed in one in the season ending in June 1985.

[42][46] During their respective careers, Sanderson won an Olympic and three Commonwealth golds, and Whitbread gained one world and one European title.

[12] During the 1970s, the use of performance-enhancing drugs was common in throwing events; Sanderson spoke against the practice,[50] consistently maintaining an anti-doping stance.

The East German team did not compete in the 1984 Olympic Games as they participated in a wider boycott led by the Soviet Union.

[51][52] Sanderson told reporters from The Daily Telegraph in 2021 that she felt during her career she had been "robbed" of medals by losing to competitors using drugs.

[56] In 2012, Sanderson was in "Billy's Olympic Nightmare", a BBC Red Button episode of soap opera EastEnders,[57] and was a contestant on ITV's Dancing on Ice Goes Gold in the same year.

Although the 2013 event attracted 3,000 participants (representing 45 different nationalities), it was cancelled in 2014; Sanderson said that the Newham Council wanted to double its fee, and delayed meeting about the race.

She told The Guardian in 1990 that she had faced racial discrimination (although not in her sporting career), and she felt that sexism was the reason women athletes were not adequately paid.

Sanderson said that her affair with the man, Derrick Evans (a fitness instructor known as Mr Motivator) began after his marriage had broken up.