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 children’s homes after being abandoned as a baby.
After being fostered, she went on to break the javelin world record and win world and European Championship gold.
The Helen Rollason Award recognises outstanding achievement in the face of adversity.
Whitbread now campaigns to improve the care system and ensure children in care are “seen, heard and valued”.
“It’s a very special award, Helen was a friend,” Whitbread said.
“I remember Helen ringing me and asking for me to be her first international athlete to be interviewed. I had just won the World Championships in 1987.
“Now she has given me the opportunity to stand on this stage and speak out loud for our children. I stand here, and I’m privileged and proud to receive this award, and I represent the care system sector and celebrate our young children, the remarkable resilience they show.”
The Helen Rollason Award was introduced to Sports Personality of the Year in 1999 in memory of the BBC Sport journalist and presenter, who died of cancer that year at the age of 43.
Whitbread, who was named Sports Personality of the Year in 1987, was presented with her award by 1972 Olympic pentathlon champion Lady Mary Peters and former world champion hurdler Colin Jackson.
During her time in care, Whitbread experienced physical and sexual abuse during forced visits to her biological mother.
Sport was her “saviour”, and through it she met javelin coach Margaret Whitbread – eventually being fostered by the Whitbread family and changing her surname by deed poll.
Whitbread embarked on a career in athletics, and after struggling to land a major title amid her well-publicised rivalry with fellow Briton Tessa Sanderson, broke the women’s javelin world record in qualifying at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Throwing 77.44m – more than two metres further than the previous record – Whitbread became the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event and went on to win the gold medal.
The following year she won World Championship gold in Rome, and in 1988 in Seoul, she won Olympic silver – four years after winning bronze at the Los Angeles Games.
Rugby league legend Rob Burrow – who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019 – won the Helen Rollason Award in 2022. Other previous winners include Scotland rugby union great Doddie Weir, Hillsborough disaster campaigner Anne Williams, football fan Bradley Lowery and racing driver Billy Monger.
