TESSA SANDERSON CBE
On the 6th August 1984 at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles Tessa Sanderson won the Gold in the Women’s Javelin and became the first black woman to win a Gold for Great Britain. She remains today the only British person, man or woman to ever win a throwing Gold Medal, a record that has been maintained for over 35 years.
Tessa competed in SIX Olympic Games from 1976 to 1996, and in addition to the Olympic Gold, won three Commonwealth Golds and a World Cup Gold in Cuba in 1990.
During her 26 years competing for Great Britain Tessa was voted Sports Personality of the Year and Athlete of the Year (3 times) by the Athletics Writers Association, she also presented the Sports News for 2/3 years for Sky Television. Her media career involved television presenting for BBC, ITV, Bloomberg, GMTV, Talk Sport Radio.
Tessa has taken part in various BBC Show’s and is a natural in front of the camera both as a guest and a host. One particular show recorded the highest viewing of the whole series on one evening with over 2.9 million viewers – it was repeated 9 nine times during the year.
Tessa was a Board member of the Olympic Park Legacy Company and continues to be very involved with that area today. Her charity support is extensive, her latest work includes being Patron of Adoption UK having adopted two young twins herself. More recently she became Patron for the Birmingham Commonwealth Association and is an Ambassador for Move it or Lose it, a campaign aiming at improving the fitness of older people, particularly during the pandemic of 2020.
She continues to be a regular within media, whether it be ‘A Question of Sport’ (2016), BBC Radio news review (2017) Loose Women (2019) Sky News (2019) or entertainment ‘Celebrity 5 go Barging’ Channel 5 (2018), Junk Food Experiment (2019), Sink or Swim (2019). She is often featured in magazines, broadsheets and the popular press (Hello Magazine covered her 60th birthday , Daily Telegraph featured ‘mother at 57, model at 60’, Telegraph supplement covered her 35th Anniversary since winning Gold ). Very much a TV/Radio personality outside of her sporting achievements she regularly gives keynote speeches as well as hosting award functions. More recently she was signed by a modelling agency and is developing work in fashion and beauty balancing this with her young family and sporting interests. She presented at a designers launch in 2019, making her debut appearance on the catwalk.
Tessa is also a corporate business ambassador helping to build brand awareness. She has several large roles with an announcement of an exciting new project shortly.
Social Media tags for Tessa:
Tessa Sanderson CBE Official Twitter @tessasanderson
Tessa Sanderson CBE Official Instagram @tessasandersoncbe