What Happened to Andrew Norman, The Husband of Fatima Whitbread? The Journey of Celebrity SAS and The Olympian
Andrew Norman, Fatima Whitbread’s husband, died of a heart attack at age 46.
Whitbread is a British javelin thrower who won the European Athletics Championships in 1986. He is now retired. With a throw of 77.44 meters in Stuttgart, she broke the world record. She was the first person from Britain to set a world record for javelin.
Before, Whitbread won the World Championships in 1987, the Summer Olympics in 1984, and the Summer Olympics in 1988. During her career, she won two gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze medals.
The 1986 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award went to Whitbread. She was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Sports Writers’ Association twice.
What Happened to Andrew Norman, The Husband of Fatima Whitbread?
Andrew, Whitbread’s husband, was a police officer. He died of a heart attack on September 24, 2007, at the age of 64. In British sports, he was well-known. In Britain, he stopped being an official 13 years before he died.
Because of what he did in the case of former Sunday Times reporter Cliff Temple, Norman was fired from his job as a promotions officer at the British Athletic Federation. After the Temple’s suicide was looked into, it was thought that the athlete had threatened and lied about a leading journalist.
Norman was an important part of sports in Europe and South Africa. In the 1990s, Holmes was the athlete’s first manager. Andy came in second place at the European Championship in 1994. The runner won the 1500m Commonwealth title.
On September 21, 1943, Norman was born in Suffolk, United Kingdom. He used to be a police officer and worked at the last Grand Prix in Europe. In South Africa and eastern Europe, he worked as a promoter. Even the athlete was a race agent for many British athletes.
In 1997, Norman got married to Fatima in Copthorne, West Sussex. Fatima used to hold the world record for throwing a javelin. After nine years together, they broke up. At the beginning of the 1990s, her partner’s job in British athletics ended. In January 1995, the TV show Is This Your Life talked about Temple’s death by suicide.
Agnes Jebet Tirop, a Kenyan athlete, was found dead in her home in Iten, Kenya, after her husband had stabbed her.
Fatima Whitbread: Who Is He?
Fatima Whitbread MBE was born Fatima Vedad on March 3, 1961, and she used to throw the javelin. She won the event at the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart. The day before, in the qualifying round, she broke the world record by throwing 77.44 meters, which was the farthest distance ever thrown. She was the first British athlete in a throwing event to set a world record. Whitbread won the World Championships in 1987. She has also won two Olympic medals: a bronze at the Summer Olympics in 1984 and a silver at the Summer Olympics in 1988.
Fatima Whitbread’s Early Years
Fatima Vedad was born on March 3, 1961, in Stoke Newington, London, to a Turkish Cypriot mother and a Greek Cypriot father. She grew up in a series of children’s homes and was sometimes left with her abusive biological mother. In 2003, she told The Observer, “It was a nightmare of a childhood, and it was only because I loved sport so much that I got through it and met my true mother.”
The javelin itself is partly to blame for my choice of sport. Not only is it a magical event, but it is also a beautiful one. The javelin in flight is a beautiful sight, and I quickly learned that letting go was a great feeling.
The Autobiography of Fatima Whitbread
Vedad started throwing the javelin when she was 11 years old. According to her, she became interested in track and field after hearing the story of Atalanta and seeing Mary Peters win the gold medal in the women’s pentathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Vedad met javelin thrower David Ottley at a stadium and asked him if she could use his javelin. He told her to wait till the bus came.
Margaret Whitbread, a physical education teacher at a nearby school, was the coach. Vedad had met Whitbread before when she officiated a netball game in which Vedad played. When Margaret Whitbread found out that Vedad lived in a children’s home, she gave her some boots and a javelin that had belonged to a girl who had quit the event. Three years later, Vedad was adopted by Margaret Whitbread and her family. She spent her teenage years in Chadwell St. Mary, Essex, where she went to the Torells School in nearby Grays.
Career of Fatima Whitbread
Fatima Whitbread won the English Schools’ Athletics Championships intermediate title in 1977 with a record distance of 142 ft 9 in (43.51 m). The next month, she set a national intermediate record of 158 ft 5 in (48.28 m) when she won the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) women’s championship.
Whitbread won the UK Athletics Championship in 1983 with a throw of 203 ft 1012 in (62.14 m). She had lost to fellow British athlete Tessa Sanderson in 18 previous competitions. After the result, Whitbread said, “I am so disappointed. I wasn’t right on the night.” In July 1986, at the Commonwealth Games, Whitbread broke the Games record twice in her first three throws. She led with a distance of 68.54 m (224 ft 10 14 in), but Sanderson beat her with a throw of 69.80 m (229 ft 0 in) and won.
Whitbread cried for about 30 minutes on the field after the result. After the medal ceremony, she was still upset and said, “12 years of hard work, and still no gold medal. I’ve waited two long years since [the 1984 Summer Olympics], and now I’m humiliated.”
World Record of Fatima Whitbread
The next month, Whitbread broke the javelin world record with a throw of 77.44 m in the qualifying round of the 1986 European Championships. This was more than 2 m farther than the record set by Petra Felke of East Germany the year before. She was the first British athlete to set a world record in a throwing event. Felke led for the first three rounds, but Whitbread beat her with a throw of 72.68 m in the fourth round and 73.68 m in the fifth round to win her first major championship gold.
In the months leading up to the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Whitbread had a shoulder injury, boils, glandular fever, and gum problems. Whitbread won the silver medal behind Felke, with a throw that was her best of the season but still about four meters shorter than her competitor. Whitbread said, “If I had to lose, I’m glad it was to Petra.”
Whitbread’s later career was hurt by a shoulder injury that she thought happened when she set the world record throw in 1986. The last competition she took part in was the UK Athletics Championships in 1990, where she hurt her shoulder again. In 1992, she gave up competing for good.
Fatima Whitbread’s Family
Fatima Whitbread was born in Stoke Newington to a family.
Whitbread was born on March 3, 1961, to a family in Stoke Newington, London. She is 61 years old right now. She looks like she is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 68 kg. Her mother was of the Cypriot Turk ethnic group, and her father was of the Greek Cypriot group.
Whitbread did well in children’s homes when she was young. Her abusive mother was left in charge of her. In an interview in 2003, she talked about her childhood as well. She wrote that her childhood was a nightmare in the British newspaper The Observer.
Later, Whitbread got into sports and that’s how she found her real mother. When the athlete was 11, he or she started to throw the javelin. She stayed interested in track and field after hearing the story of Atalanta.
Whitbread asked David Ottley, a retired British athlete, if she could borrow his javelin. The athelet, though, told her to wait until the coach came. Margaret Whitbread was the coach at the time. She taught physical education at a school in the area.
Margaret learns some things about her childhood because of what happened to Fatima. The athlete and she were in the same situation. After three years, the athlete’s family and she took Vedad in. She lives in Chadwell St. Mary, Essex, when she is a teenager. She went to school in Torells.
When she moved in with the Whitbreads, her brothers were only 2 and 4 years old. So they called her “big sister.”
Children of Fatima Whitbread
Whitbread and her ex-husband Norman only had one child. Ryan Norman was born on February 25, 1998, in Pretoria, South Africa. He is 24 years old right now. The athlete’s son made a name for himself in the series in 2011.
In the show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, Ryan played Fatima’s son. for two segments. But he is not given credit for his role in episode 11. The reality TV spin-off show on ITV2 had information, chat, and footage from behind the scenes.
Fatima wanted to adopt a child because she had a terrible childhood. When her son went to college, she thought about taking in another child. When he is done with school, his son will move away from her.
Fatima said that his son had grown up with a strong sense of self. He can cook, clean, and do other things around the house well. In 2020, Ryan was in his last year of college, and his girlfriend may have moved with his child.
Whitbread Fatima lives near Brentwood in Essex at the moment. She stopped being an athlete and spent her old age at home. Even the athelet wanted to adopt a child. Also, after her husband died, she raised her son Ryan all by herself.
Some Quick Facts
| Birth name | Fatima Vedad |
| Born | Stoke Newington, London |
| Birth Date | 3 March 1961 |
| Age | 61 |
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) |
| Weight | 10 st 10 lb (68 kg) |
| Husband | Andy Norman (m. 1997–2006) |
| Son | Ryan Norman |