Fatima Whitbread had the worst possible start in life. Abandoned as a baby, she spent much of her childhood in and out of children's homes. A brief, disastrous stay with her birth mother saw her raped by her mother's drunken boyfriend -- while her mother held a knife to her throat to 'quieten her down'. Fatima was only twelve at the time.
Athletics was her saviour: local athletics coach Margaret Whitbread took the young Fatima under her wing, eventually adopting her. Fatima competed in three Olympics, winning bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. In 1986 she set a world record, and the following year in Rome became world champion and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year. But then Fatima faded from the public eye, leaving many to wonder where she had gone.
After the cheering stopped, Fatima faced prejudice, penury, scandal and heartbreak. "Survivor" describes how she defeated all her demons to rise triumphantly from the ashes once again, this time as queen of the jungle. Almost 13 million people watched her on "I'm a Celebrity," and after surviving 20 days in the Australian heat, she has millions of new fans eager to know more about Fatima the woman: the forthright, focused, slightly bossy, charismatic single mum who knows how to transform even the most devastating experiences into lessons in life. This is the unforgettable story of a true champion, who triumphed against the worst hardships imaginable.

At the turn of the century, Track and Field was the bastion of the rich and privileged. While baseball and prize-fighting attracted the top sportsmen from the lower orders of society, athletic clubs generally filled themselves with the America's top sporting graduates from private colleges and the sons of the rich. Except one! The Irish-American Athletic Club was a New York organization that bucked the trend. Founded by immigrants and their sons, it was populated by immigrants, the sons of immigrants, and not necessarily the sons of Irish immigrants. Jews, African-Americans, Scandinavians, Italians, even a handful of Englishmen joined the club. It would dominate New York and American athletics for over a decade, forcing the renowned New York Athletic Club into perennial second place. It would lay claim to the title of best athletic club in the world following the 1908 Olympic Games. It would break the "color-line". It would bend the rules on amateurism. It would challenge the ban on Sunday entertainments and succumb to the fallout from the First World War, Prohibition and a growing city swallowing up real estate for urban housing, yet endow us some of the greatest myths and legends in American athletics. This is its story.