‘I found solace in sport’ – Olympian Fatima Whitbread shares her experience of growing up in care
Abandoned as a baby, Fatima Whitbread spent the first 11 years of her life living in a children’s home. She explains how she survived, became a world class athlete and now works to help other vulnerable children and young people to feel seen and heard.
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’s won gold medals at the European and World Championships and secured herself two Olympic medals – bronze and silver – in 1984 and 1988. She later went on to appear on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2011, when she hit the headlines for accidentally inhaling a cockroach through her nose.
But Fatima hasn’t had an easy road to success. Growing up in a children’s home was difficult, but it was during this time she found solace in sport.
‘It was a stress relief’, Fatima said. ‘It helped me get away from all of the pressure of being in children’s homes. Going to school for me wasn’t for the academic side of things, it was for my sport. It was relaxing, it gave me a sense of freedom from the stresses and emotional traumas of being in the care system.’
Before she got into athletics, Fatima had tried a number of sports – but it was javelin that led her to international success and her adoptive parents. Fatima recalls the first time she met her adoptive mother, Margaret Whitbread. Margaret was umpiring a netball match Fatima was playing in and threatened to kick her off the court for shouting too much.
The game marked the end of the netball season, so she later headed down to an athletics club with a friend, to see if they could give something else a go. However, when Fatima turned up at the club and realised Margaret was javelin coach, she thought her athletic ambitions were over. But it wasn’t long before her talents were noticed. When Margaret learned Fatima lived in a children’s home she found her a second-hand pair of boots, handed down by a retired athlete, for javelin practice – a moment she’ll never forget.
‘They were two sizes two small and I had to stuff them with paper so they would fit, but I couldn’t wait to show everyone at the children’s home. There were loads of kids in the homes back then so everything was communal, you never had anything. If you got too attached to something it would be tough because someone else would be wearing it the week after.’
It wasn’t long before Fatima’s new passion got her in to trouble. She recalls the time she accidentally threw a javelin into a glass window at the children’s home, shattering it, resulting in her getting grounded for a month. Devastated at the thought she might get banned from training if she didn’t show up, Fatima wrote a letter to Margaret explaining the situation.
‘I wrote, “Dear Mrs Whitbread, sorry I can’t come to the track, I smashed the french windows and got a month ban, but one day I want to be the best javelin thrower in the world”’, Fatima recalls.
After a tense wait, the children’s home received the call that Fatima had been waiting for. Margaret had managed to persuade staff to waive Fatima’s grounding and within a week she was back in training.
Twelve years of incredibly hard work followed before Fatima won her first major title – the European Junior Championships in 1979.
‘[Being in children’s homes] gave me an inner strength’, explains Fatima.
‘If someone said to “you can’t do that” or “you won’t amount to anything”, I wanted to show them that I could.’
Now, more than thirty years on from Olympic success, Fatima channels that same drive and ambition into her work, advocating for children’s rights. She is an ambassador for Action for Children and is currently promoting her own campaign, Fatima’s UK Campaign, calling on the government to overhaul social care in the UK.
As part of this she wants to encourage care experienced young people to use sports and art as a positive outlet, in the same way she did. She has launched The Power of Sports and The Power of Arts programmes to give care experienced young people the opportunity to try new things and gain qualifications.
‘They give care experienced young people something to focus on’, explains Fatima.
‘They can connect with their community and have a sense of belonging. It keeps them off the streets, out of harm’s way. It enables them to feel seen, heard and valued, which is really key.
‘Growing up in children’s homes was hard, and leaving care is a frightening time. However, I’ve made a reasonably good success of it and I’ve spoken to lots of care experienced people who have made a success of it too.
‘There is hope out there, and we’ve got you.’
For more information about Fatima’s UK Campaign visit www.fatimascampaign.com
