Exclusive interview
Tessa Sanderson
on race, rivalry
and modelling
I
t was 35 years ago that Tessa Sanderson
became the first Black British woman to
win an Olympic gold medal.
She remembers every moment; the
inner calm before her Olympic
record-setting winning throw in the
first round of the javelin final; nearly making
a fool of herself by offering competition
advice to bitter rival Fatima Whitbread; even
the warm feeling of Daley Thompson’s
congratulatory hug after he burst into her
room the following morning, exclaiming,
“You did it, you old bat!”
She also, in stark contrast, remembers
how she felt when her victory became the
focus for racial hatred following her return
from Los Angeles.
“I received a letter from someone writing
to me, saying I didn’t win for Britain,”
Sanderson, 63, recalls.
“It said, ‘Don’t think you’ve won your gold
for Britain. You’re black and this and that.
You won for somewhere else, you didn’t win
for us.’ I told my family. I got choked about it.
But I thought, ‘What a stupid person, just a
total idiot’.”
Born in Jamaica, Sanderson arrived in
Wolverhampton when she was six. Growing
up in the Midlands she experienced racist
abuse at school, called the N-word and
“golliwog”. At home, things were hard, too.
Sanderson’s father was a sheet-metal worker,
her mother a hairdresser, with Sanderson
herself juggling multiple jobs to make ends
meet. It all contributed to her feeling “on top
of the world” when Olympic glory finally
arrived on Aug 6, 1984.
“I had been to hell and back to get there,”
says Sanderson, who also overcame two
years out with a ruptured Achilles
beforehand.
Of the racial significance of her win, she
adds: “I’ve always been proud of being black,
my colour, born to my parents. But the black
community in the UK made me feel so extra
proud. I’d done it for the UK because, first
and foremost, that’s where I lived. But I’d
also done it for Jamaica, too.
“In those days, there was still a lot of
racism going on, there were still peopletrying to find their way. The community had
taken me in and I’d carried them on my back
now.
“It made me realise even more about
young black people, about making sure they
have confidence to go forward.”
Now in her 60s she is busier than ever,
balancing charity and media work with a
new career as an older model. She has
become a mother, too, after adopting twins
Cassius and Ruby Mae, now six, with her
husband, Densign, a former Olympic judo
player, while her latest venture will see
her pushed to her limits as she takes part
in the new Channel 4 series Sink or Swim
in support of Stand Up To Cancer, the
culmination of which will see the celebrities
attempt to swim the Channel.
“Some think that if you’re over 50, you’re
done. No, forget it, we’re there to kick ass.”
Given societal changes since the Eighties,
it is interesting to hear six-time Olympian
Sanderson’s view on whether she sometimes
wishes she was an athlete now. She shakes
her head. “I’m glad I won Olympic gold then,
I had a purpose to fulfil and I fulfilled it by
winning,” she says.
Still, she is frank about the barriers
sportswomen had to contend with at the
time. “The opportunities for women to
compete and to be in the same light as men- although Fatima and I were throwing like
hell at world level – was so different. We had
to come out of this barrel,” she said.
“It didn’t matter what you did, it was as
though women must take a back seat. We
had to fight for it. You got prize money, but it
was chicken feed, not much at all.
“It’s changed a lot now. It’s had a massive
foot forward. Paula Radcliffe winning
marathons, Kelly Holmes doing her bit. Jess
Ennis-Hill is a beauty, inside and out. It’s
taking on board that we are strong, we work
hard, we fight hard. I feel a lot more
comfortable this is happening. It means a lot
to women.”
To illustrate her point, Sanderson
describes how three weeks after her
Olympic success, she found herself jobless
after the company she was working for went
into liquidation. “A gold medal, no major
sponsorship and no job,” as she puts it.
The response in the following years was to
go on an image-building exercise after
people advised her to create an identity
around her gold medal.
“People told me to go and give talks. I did,”
she says. “I got the curlers out, started
straightening my hair, looked at make-up.
Beauty in a different way.
“Even back then, people were still
thinking the javelin and field eventers were
It is 35 years since the Briton
topped the podium in Los Angeles,
where one throw of the javelin
changed her life forever. But
the Olympian is as busy as ever
in her 60s, writes Pippa Field
‘It was as
though women
must take a
back seat. We
had to fight for
it. You got prize
money, but it
was chicken
feed, not
much at all’
Fellow Briton Fatima Whitbread had to
settle for bronze in 1984. The two were
great rivals over the years, and Sanderson
says she always hated this podium picture
of Whitbread pinching her cheek.At 28 years old, Tessa Sanderson won
javelin gold at the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympics. She broke the Games record
with her first-round throw in the final
of 69.56 metres.Sanderson remains the only British
thrower, male or female, to win an
Olympic title. She represented Britain in
the javelin competition at six consecutive
Games from 1976 to 1996.Top of the podium
The great rivalry
In a field of her own
Golden glory
6 ***^ Friday 16 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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