Stephanie Jayne "Steph" Cook,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 7 February 1972) is a British retired

modern pentathlete The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport consisting of fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. The event is inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the anc ...

. She was the

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 b ...

champion at this event in 2000. Cook was born in

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

, Scotland. She was educated at Bedford High School; The

Perse School for Girls The Stephen Perse Foundation is a family of independent schools in Cambridge and Saffron Walden for students aged 1 to 18. The Foundation is made up of 3 nurseries (2 in Cambridge and 1 in Saffron Walden, Essex) for ages 1–5, 2 Junior Schoo ...

;

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

and then

Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...

, where she read medicine. Having rowed at Cambridge, she took up modern pentathlon whilst completing her course in clinical medicine at Oxford. She was president of the Oxford University Modern Pentathlon Association in 1995–1996, and won the women's individual title in the

Varsity match A varsity match is a fixture (especially of a sporting event or team) between two university teams, particularly Oxford and Cambridge. The Scottish Varsity rugby match between the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh at Murray ...

against Cambridge in 1997. Although reported as "having put her medical career on hold", she was supported through her training from 1998 to 2000 by Consultant Surgeon Mark Whiteley who funded a research job for her in Guildford, during which she published three papers with him. She paid him tribute in 2002 during the TV programme '' This is Your Life''. Cook won the gold medal in the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

2000 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 1 ...

in the women's

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Olympic sport consisting of fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. The event is inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the anci ...

, the first time that the event was included in the games. She went on to win individual World and European titles in 2001 before retiring from the sport. Her particular strength was running.

Honours

In the 2001 New Year Honours, Cook was appointed as a member of the

Order of The British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

for services to modern pentathlon. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Medicine) from the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

References

External links

* 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Irvine, North Ayrshire Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Anglo-Scots Officers of the Order of the British Empire British female modern pentathletes Olympic modern pentathletes of Great Britain Modern pentathletes at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in modern pentathlon People educated at Bedford High School, Bedfordshire People educated at the Perse School for Girls Scottish Olympic medallists Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Team Bath pentathletes {{UK-modern-pentathlon-bio-stub