Natalie Louise Cook (born 19 January 1975) is an Australian professional

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of th ...

player and

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medallist. She became the first Australian woman to compete at five Olympic Games.

Early life

Cook was born in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

. She was the dux of her school, Corinda State High (located in the western suburbs of Brisbane). She enrolled in pre-medicine college courses, and also took up

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, captaining the Australian Indoor Junior Team in 1992. In 1993 she began playing

. In 1994 she went professional and gave up her pursuit of a medical degree.

Career

Beach volley at the Beijing Olympics - Brazil v

Cook partnered with

Kerri Pottharst Kerri Ann Pottharst OAM (born 25 June 1965) is an Australian former professional beach volleyball player and Olympic gold medallist. Pottharst was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and currently resides in Sydney. In addition to her previou ...

to represent Australia at the

Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in 1996, winning a bronze medal—the first time that beach volleyball had been an Olympic sport. In the same year, the pair won a silver medal at the world championships, and came first in the World Tour Event in Japan. Cook and Pottharst did not play together again until 2000. They finished third in the World Tour Events, held in France and Portugal, and then participated in the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney. They dominated the competition, winning the gold medal. In the aftermath of their Olympic win, the pair were awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. Cook and Pottharst were included in the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball's Team of the Decade. After the Olympics, Pottharst retired, and Cook found a new partner in

Nicole Sanderson Nicole Therese Sanderson (born 1 April 1976 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian beach volleyball player. Sanderson started her career in indoor volleyball where played for Pepperdine University, in the United States. In 1998 she com ...

. They won a bronze medal at the

2003 Beach Volleyball World Championships These page shows the results of the IV Beach Volleyball World Championships, held from October 7 to October 12, 2003, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was the fourth official edition of this event, after ten unofficial championships (1987–1996) all ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, and by the end of the 2003 world tour, were ranked fourth in the world. They were subsequently selected to represent Australia at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. After a promising start, they finished out of medal contention, losing to teams from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and the United States. For the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

, Cook partnered with Tamsin Barnett, finishing fifth overall. On 1 August 2012, Cook's record breaking beach volleyball career came to an end with her elimination from her fifth games in London.

Personal life

Cook currently resides in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

and is married to fellow beach volleyballer Sarah Maxwell. In addition to her sporting career, Cook tours on the public speaking circuit as a leading motivational speaker attracting big audiences and has launched her own beach volleyball-related business, ''Sandstorm''.

Books

* ''Go Girl!'' (2001) * ''Health & Wellbeing Millionaire''

References

External links