British Olympic Gold Medallists 1896-2014

Since MODERN PENTATHLON became an Olympic sport in 1912 Britain has contested it at every Games but did not win their first medal until 1976 when the British trio of Jim Fox, Danny Nightingale and Adrian Parker won the team gold medal. They have won just one other gold medal, in 2000 when Stephanie Cook won the gold medal in the inaugural women's event. The team event has not been contested since 1992. No Briton has won two Modern Pentathlon medals.

The 1976 team event in which Britain won gold, saw one of the great Olympic controversies when the Soviet contestant Boris Onishenko was caught cheating in the fencing event. And it was against the Britons Adrian Parker and Jim Fox that they noticed something was untowards when the automatic light to indicate a hit from the Ukranian came on when Parker was adamant it had not been a hit. After the same thing happened to Fox a protest was lodged and Onishenko's weapon was taken away for examination. It was discovered that it contained a button which could activated at will by Onishenko to indicate a hit.

Onishenko was disqualified and it was off to the salt mines!

The five disciplines of the Modern Pentathlon are:
Fencing (epée)
Pistol Shooting
Swimming (200 metres freestyle)
Show Jumping
Running (3km cross country)

Steph Cook went to both Cambridge and Oxford Universities and after running and lightweight rowing for Cambridge (like her sister) she went to Lincoln College, Oxford and took up Modern Pentathlon when she saw a notice in her porter's lodge at the University in 1995. She won the women's cross country Varsity Match in 1996 and then won the Modern Pentathlon individual title in the 1997 Match.

After completing her degree she continued her competitive Modern Pentathlon career and after wining a silver medal at the 1998 world championship she decided to put her career on hold to concentrate on the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

She repeated the world team silver medal in 1999 and 2000 and won the team and individual silver at the 2000 European Championships and she went into the Sydney Olympics as one of the favourites.

At Sydney she went into the fifth and final event, the 3000 metres cross country - her best event - lying in 8th position and in order to take gold she had to beat her former Oxford training partner, Emily de Riel of the United States by 49 seconds, and her GB team mate Kate Allenby by 44 seconds. After an amazing run she won the race by nearly 20 seconds from Pernille Svarre of Denmark, with de Riel and Allenby both over 50 seconds behind as Cook took the gold medal my a margin of just eight points from the American at the final points count.

In the post Olympic year Steph won the world, European and World Cup titles before retiring from the sport. That same year was awarded the OBE for the services to the Modern Pentathlon in the New Year's Honours List.

Now a qualified surgeon Steph was part of the organising committee for the 2012 Olympics.

The senior member of the British trio that won the team gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, Jim Fox was competing in his fourth and final Olympic Games at Montreal in 1976.

Prior to his gold medal his best ever finish had been in finishing fourth in the individual event at Munich in 1972. Four years earlier, after the Mexico Olympics he decided to quit the sport but his coach persuaded him to continue and it turned out that he had two more Olympics in him.

Ten times the National champion, Jim Fox was an individual bronze medallist at the world championships at Mexico City in 1975.

An army officer with the REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) Fox started life as a 15-year-old army apprentice and after 26 years service he retired having reached the rank of Captain. But it was at his sport that he is remembered for his contribution towards its growth and development in Britain and he was awarded both the MBE and OBE for his services to his the Modern Pentathlon.

Danny Nightingale was the youngest member of the British gold medal winning team at the 1976 Olympics. Britain's three athletes finished in the first six places in the final event, the 4000 metres run, as they lifted themselves from fifth place after four disciplines, to the gold medal position. Nightingale finished tenth in the individual competition.

Four times the national champion between 1976 and 1979 Danny Nightingale won the 1979 Moscow Spartakiade. He competed in his second Olympics at Moscow in 1980 and was captain of the British team. He was one of the favourites for the individual title but, despite winning the running event, he could finish only 15th.

An engineering student at the time of his Olympic triumph he later worked for the Modern Pentathlon Association and also became a PE teacher.

Nightingale, along with fellow Olympic gold medallist Mary Rand, was given the Freedom of the City of Wells in 2012.

Adrian Parker finished fifth in the individual competition at the 1976 Olympics and was the highest placed member of the gold medal winning British team. But it was his amazing run in the final event, the 4000 metres, that helped lift Britain from outside the medal positions to gold.

The British champion in 1975 he had been part of the British team that finished fifth at the 1973 Junior World Championships.

NB: Fox, Nightingale and Parker received just one gold medal between them in 1976 because the IOC rules allowed only one medal per team if there was a team and individual event held within the same competition. However, Everest Double Glazing had four special 'unofficial' gold medals made for the winning trio and the reserve Andy Archibald, and presented them at the Waldorf Hotel in London a month after the Montreal Games. The medals carried the inscription: "The team that won Britain's first modern pentathlon team gold medal against all the odds. Olympic Games, Montreal, 1976.

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