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Theresa Ione Sanderson (born 14 March 1956) is a British former . She appeared in every Summer Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in the javelin throw at the 1984 Olympics. She was the second track and field athlete to compete at six Olympics, and the first Black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
Sanderson won gold medals in the javelin throw at three Commonwealth Games (1978, 1986 and 1990) and at the 1992 IAAF World Cup. She was runner-up at the 1978 European Athletics Championships, and competed in three world championships (1983, 1987, and 1997). Sanderson was UK National Champion three times and AAA National Champion in amateur athletics ten times. She set five Commonwealth records and ten British national records in the javelin, as well as records at the junior and masters levels. During her career, Sanderson had a rivalry with fellow Briton Fatima Whitbread, who took the bronze in the 1984 Olympics.
Outside athletics, Sanderson has made several guest television appearances, and was a sports reporter for Sky News when it began broadcasting in 1989. Sanderson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1985 and became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2004 New Years Honours. She was Vice-chair of Sport England from 1999 to 2005, and later established the Tessa Sanderson Foundation and Academy, which aims to encourage young people and people with disabilities to take up sport.
The 1976 season saw Sanderson's debut at the Olympics. Aged 20, she was the youngest competitor in her event and threw to finish ninth. In July 1977, at the European Cup semi-finals in Dublin, she threw a national record and the second-longest distance by a woman at the time. At the European Cup finals, Ruth Fuchs of East Germany won the gold and Sanderson took the silver. Later that year, Sanderson was the bronze medalist at the 1977 IAAF World Cup.
Sanderson won her first major gold medal with a throw of in the 1978 Commonwealth Games, the first time England had won Commonwealth gold in the women's javelin since 1962. A few weeks later, Sanderson took silver at the 1978 European Athletics Championships behind Fuchs; she was the bronze medalist at the 1979 European Cup again behind Fuchs, both of them losing out to Romanian Éva Ráduly-Zörgő. Selected for the 1980 Summer Olympics, she failed to meet the qualifying standard for the final, reaching only with her first throw and having her other two attempts declared no-throws.
After the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, Sanderson asked Wilf Paish of the Carnegie Institute of Physical Education in Leeds to become her coach, and lived with his family once he agreed. A throw of was enough for Sanderson to win at the 1981 Pacific Conference Games. At the 1981 European Cup, she was runner-up behind Antoaneta Todorova of Bulgaria who made a world-record throw of . She also competed in the pentathlon and heptathlon, setting UK and Commonwealth records for the heptathlon twice in 1981. Later that year, Sanderson had an achilles tendon rupture in her left leg and broke a bone in her throwing arm. Surgery on her Achilles tendon was unsuccessful, and she required another operation; the injuries prevented her from competing for 22 months. After returning, Sanderson achieved her career-best javelin throw of at the Tarmac Games in Edinburgh on 26 June 1983. It was the third-longest throw by a woman at the time, when the record was thrown by Tiina Lillak of Finland ten days previously. Sanderson finished fourth at the 1983 World Championships; another British competitor, Fatima Whitbread, who was coming to the fore as her rival, won silver. (1988). 9780948615122, Sackville. ISBN 9780948615122 After re-injuring her Achilles tendon at the championship, Sanderson had surgery on both Achilles tendons a few days after the competition ended.
In March 1987, Sanderson announced that she would change her focus from the javelin throw to the heptathlon. Shortly before then, she had moved to London and was looking for a career in television or promotional work. In fact, she only competed in one heptathlon after this, in July. At the Dairy Crest Games in August, Whitbread (who had been undefeated during the season) injured her shoulder; Sanderson won the event. Sanderson then announced that she would train with Mick Hill in Italy for the world championships. Whitbread won the world championship, and Sanderson finished fourth.
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. She failed to qualify for the final and left the competition limping, with blood visible on the bandage on her injured ankle. Sanderson left the stadium on crutches before the medal ceremony, where Whitbread received the silver medal behind Petra Felke from East Germany.
Sanderson announced after the 1988 Olympics that she would retire from the javelin throw, but made an unexpected return to competition in 1989 at the McVitie's International Challenge; she finished third. She also finished third at the 1989 European Cup, despite not being in top condition. At the 1990 Commonwealth Games, a throw of was enough for Sanderson to retain her title. She finished 12th at the 1990 European Athletics Championships, but was later moved up to 11th. Aged 35, Sanderson won at the 1991 European Cup over a field which included world-record holder Felke.
Her fifth Olympic Games appearance, at the 1992 Summer Olympics, set a record for Olympic appearances by a British athlete. Sanderson's best throw, , was almost five metres less than the winning throw of by Silke Renk and 3.28 metres less than bronze medalist Karen Forkel. She won gold at the 1992 World Cup with a throw of , nearly three metres further than any other competitor.
During their respective careers, Sanderson won an Olympic and three Commonwealth golds, and Whitbread gained one world and one European title. In all, Sanderson placed higher in 27 of the 45 times that they faced each other in competition, although Whitbread had the better results of the pair from 1984 to 1987. In 2019, Sanderson told an interviewer from The Daily Telegraph that although she had initially been on friendly terms with Whitbread, before "the competition got to Whitbread's head" and they fell out, "The rivalry was one of the best things when you look at it now. It drove me to another level. It made me want to beat her every time. It's calmer now. I respect her and I hope she respects me."
During the 1970s, the use of performance-enhancing drugs was common in throwing events; Sanderson spoke against the practice, consistently maintaining an anti-doping stance. Her rival, two-time Olympic champion Fuchs, later admitted using in the East German sports programme. The East German team did not compete in the 1984 Olympic Games as they participated in a wider boycott led by the Soviet Union. 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.
Sanderson was vice-chair of Sport England from 1999 to 2005. In 2006, she founded an academy in Newham which helped to find and train athletes to represent Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Tessa Sanderson Foundation and Academy was established in September 2009 to encourage young people and people with disabilities to take up sport with mentoring and support.
From 2009 to 2013, Sanderson organised an annual 10 km race in Newham; part of the route was through Olympic Park. 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. Sanderson was appointed to the board of the Olympic Park Legacy Company, chaired by Baroness Ford, to "develop and manage" the park after the 2012 Olympics.
Sanderson is an honorary graduate of the University of Wolverhampton, and was made an Honorary Fellow of London South Bank University in 2004. That year, she was one of 100 Great Black Britons in a poll taken after the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons failed to include any Black Britons. Later that year, Sanderson received a Sportswomen of the Year Lifetime Achievement award from The Sunday Times. A housing estate in Wednesfield near where she began learning the javelin throw was named Sanderson Park after her. Two roads are named after her: Tessa Sanderson Place is near Wandsworth Road in South London, and Tessa Sanderson Way is in Greenford, West London.
Tessa: My Life in Athletics, Sanderson's autobiography, was published in 1986. In 1990, she sued several newspapers and was awarded £30,000 in damages by the High Court of Justice for claims that she had "stolen another woman's husband". Sanderson said that her affair with the man, Derrick Evans (a fitness instructor known as Mr Motivator) began after his marriage had broken up. Sanderson had starred in the fitness videos Cardiofunk (1990) and Body Blitz (c. 1992) with Evans.
On 3 May 2010, Sanderson married former judo Olympian Densign White at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Her bridesmaids were fellow Olympic teammates Sharron Davies, Kelly Holmes and Christine Ohuruogu. She had three unsuccessful in vitro fertilisation treatments by the age of 50. Sanderson and White began fostering four-month-old twins Cassius and Ruby Mae in 2013 and adopted them the following year, when Sanderson was 58. Her nephew, Dion Sanderson, is a footballer who debuted with Wolverhampton Wanderers in October 2019.
| +Personal best performances by Tessa Sanderson ! scope="col" | Event ! scope="col" | Best ! scope="col" | Date ! scope="col" | Notes ! scope="col" | |
| Javelin throw | 73.58 m | 26 June 1983 | in Edinburgh | ||
| 200 m | 24.89 s | July 1981 | Brussels (European Cup semi-final) | ||
| 400 m | 57.3 s | 1972 | |||
| 800 m | 2:26.20 | July 1981 | Brussels (European Cup semi-final) | ||
| 100 m hurdles | 13.46 s | 25 July 1981 | at Crystal Palace | ||
| 400 m hurdles | 60.46 s | 11 June 1977 | Cwmbran Stadium (1977 UK Athletics Championships) | ||
| High jump | 1.69 m | 13 January 1973 | at the Cosford Games | ||
| Long jump | 5.97 m | July 1981 | Brussels (European Cup semi-final) | ||
| Shot put | 13.27 m | 1981 | |||
| Heptathlon | 6125 pts | July 1981 | Brussels (European Cup semi-final) | ||
| 60 m hurdles (indoors) | 8.5 s | 26 February 1977 | at Cosford | ||
| Pentathlon (indoors) | 3623 pts | 1973 | |||
| +Tessa Sanderson's javelin throw record ! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" | Competition ! scope="col" | Venue ! scope="col" | Position ! scope="col" | Distance ! scope="col" | |
| 1973 | European Junior Championships | Duisburg, West Germany | 12th | 39.18 m | ||
| 1974 | British Commonwealth Games | Christchurch, New Zealand | 5th | 48.54 m | ||
| European Championships | Rome, Italy | 13th (q) | 53.28 m | |||
| 1976 | Olympic Games | Montreal, Canada | 10th | 57.18 m | ||
| 1977 | European Cup | Helsinki, Finland | 2nd | 62.36 m | ||
| World Cup | Düsseldorf, West Germany | 3rd | 60.30 m | |||
| 1978 | Commonwealth Games | Edmonton, Canada | 1st | 61.34 m | ||
| European Championships | Prague, Czechoslovakia | 2nd | 62.40 m | |||
| 1979 | European Cup | Turin, Italy | 3rd | 62.38 m | ||
| 1980 | Olympic Games | Moscow, Soviet Union | 19th (q) | 48.76 m | ||
| 1981 | Pacific Conference Games | Christchurch, New Zealand | 1st | 61.56 m | ||
| European Cup | Zagreb, Yugoslavia | 2nd | 65.94 m | |||
| 1983 | World Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 4th | 64.76 m | ||
| 1984 | Olympic Games | Los Angeles, United States | 1st | 69.56 m | ||
| 1986 | Commonwealth Games | Edinburgh, Scotland | 1st | 69.80 m | ||
| 1987 | World Championships | Rome, Italy | 4th | 67.54 m | ||
| 1988 | Olympic Games | Seoul, South Korea | 21st (q) | 56.70 m | ||
| 1989 | European Cup | Gateshead, United Kingdom | 3rd | 59.72 m | ||
| 1990 | Commonwealth Games | Auckland, New Zealand | 1st | 65.72 m | ||
| European Championships | Split, Yugoslavia | 12th | 57.56 m | |||
| 1991 | European Cup | Frankfurt, Germany | 1st | 65.18 m | ||
| 1992 | Olympic Games | Barcelona, Spain | 4th | 63.58 m | ||
| World Cup | Havana, Cuba | 1st | 61.86 m | |||
| 1996 | European Cup | Madrid, Spain | 4th | 58.18 m | ||
| Olympic Games | Atlanta, United States | 14th (q) | 58.86 m | |||
| 1997 | World Championships | Athens, Greece | 18th (q) | 57.84 m |
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