Early life
Tessa Sanderson was born in Jamaica, where she lived until she was six years old. She then moved to Wolverhampton, England, with her parents. When she was young, she loved playing sports. Her PE teacher at school noticed her talent for athletics and encouraged her to train.
She joined a local athletics club and began to compete as a teenager. When she was sixteen, she won the English Schools Intermediate javelin championship. She broke the junior record five times and the senior record ten times.
Olympic career
Her first appearance in the Olympics was in Canada, in 1976. She was the youngest person competing in javelin and came ninth. In 1984, she won the Olympic gold medal in javelin becoming the first black British woman to win an Olympic gold medal.
In 2006, Sanderson started an academy in Newham, London, that helps to find and train athletes to represent Britain. A mother of twins, she continues to work to bring more young people into competitive sport and give those with less money a greater opportunity to succeed.