Mary Peters (athlete)

Medal record
Women's Athletics
Competitor for  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold	1972 Munich	Pentathlon

Dame Mary Elizabeth Peters, DBE, DL (born 6 July 1939) is a former British athlete, competing mainly in the pentathlon and shot put.

Biography

Mary Peters was born in Halewood, Lancashire, but moved to Ballymena at age eleven. She now lives in Lisburn just outside Belfast.^[1]

In the 1972 Summer Olympics Peters won the gold medal in the women's pentathlon, having finished 4th in 1964 and 9th in 1968. To win the gold medal, she narrowly beat the local favourite, Heide Rosendahl.

She represented Northern Ireland at every Commonwealth Games between 1958 and 1974. In these games she won 2 gold medals for the pentathlon, plus a gold and silver medal for the shot put.

She was appointed CBE in 1990, having been appointed MBE in 1972. In 2000 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the year in which Denise Lewis won gold in the women's multi-discipline event, now the heptathlon.

She became a Trustee of The Outward Bound Trust in May 2001 and is Vice President of the Northern Ireland Outward Bound Association. Dame Mary is also Patron of Springhill Hospice in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Northern Ireland's premier athletics track, on the outskirts of Belfast, is called the Mary Peters Track in her honour. In April 2009, it was announced that she will become the next Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "BBC NEWS: "Dame Mary now has regal role"". BBC News. 8 April 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7989921.stm. Retrieved 2009-04-08. 

External links

• Mary Peters Track, Belfast (picture)
• Northern Irish Athletics website, entry for Mary Peters
• BBC biography
• Dame Mary Peters' curriculum vitae

Persondata
Name	Peters, Mary
Alternative names
Short description	British pentathlete
Date of birth	6 July 1939
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death