Mary Peters (athlete)

Lady Mary Elizabeth Peters (born 6 July 1939) is a Northern Irish former athlete and athletics administrator. She is best known as the 1972 Olympic champion in the pentathlon, for which she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Peters was named as Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 27 February 2019. She was installed in St. George's Chapel, the chapel of the Order, on Garter Day, 17 June.

Early life and education

Peters was born in Halewood, Liverpool and attended HuntsCross primary school, later living at 5 Mere Avenue in Alkrington, where she went to primary school.<ref>Belfast Telegraph, 4 April 1961, p. 13</ref><ref>Manchester Evening News, 1 June 1964, p. 8</ref>

She moved to Ballymena (and later Belfast) at the age of eleven when her father's job was relocated to Northern Ireland.<ref name="guardianolysrs">Template:Cite news</ref> As a teenager, her father encouraged her athletic career by building her home practice facilities as birthday gifts. She qualified as a teacher and worked while training.

Athletics career

File:Mary Peters 1972 Olympic gold medal.JPG

Peters' Women's Pentathlon gold medal, Munich Summer Olympics 1972

After Ballymena, the family moved to Portadown where she attended Portadown College. The headmaster Donald Woodman and the PE teacher Kenneth McClelland introduced her to athletics, McClelland being her first coach. She was head girl of the school in 1956.

In the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Peters competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland and won the gold medal in the women's pentathlon. She had finished 4th in 1964 and 9th in 1968. To win the gold medal, she narrowly beat the local favourite, West Germany's Heide Rosendahl, by 10 points, setting a world record score. After her victory, a death threat was phoned into the BBC by a man with an Irish accent: "Mary Peters is a Protestant and has won a medal for Britain. An attempt will be made on her life and it will be blamed on the IRA ... Her home will be going up in the near future." But Peters insisted she would return home to Belfast. She was greeted by fans and a band at the airport and paraded through the city streets, but was not allowed back in her flat for three months. Turning down jobs in the US and Australia, where her father lived, she insisted on remaining in Northern Ireland.<ref name="guardianolysrs"/>

In 1972, Peters won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award: "Peters, a 33-year-old secretary from Belfast, won Britain's only athletics gold at the Munich Olympics. The pentathlon competition was decided on the final event, the 200m, and Peters claimed the title by one-tenth of a second."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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

After athletics

Peters became a Trustee of The Outward Bound Trust in May 2001 and is vice-president of the Northern Ireland Outward Bound Association. She is also Patron of Springhill Hospice in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. She now lives in Derriaghy, within the Lisburn and Castlereagh district, just outside Belfast.<ref name="McNeilly">Template:Cite news</ref>

The Mary Peters Trust

Peters established a charitable Sports Trust in 1975 (now known as the Mary Peters Trust) to support talented young sportsmen and -women, both able-bodied and disabled, from across Northern Ireland in a financial and advisory capacity. The trust has made a large number of awards, and has a list of well-known alumni that includes Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Jonathan Rea, Darren Clarke, David Humphreys, Bethany Firth, Ryan Burnett, Carl Frampton, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Kelly Gallagher and Michael McKillop.

In May 2025, Peters said she was thrilled that her Trust had been assisting young sports people for more than 50 years.<ref>Mark Bain, "'It’s always lovely to be invited back': Lady Mary Peters returns to former primary school as it celebrates 50 years". Belfast Telegraph, 20 May 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025</ref>

Honours

File:Jude Terry and Mary Peters.jpg

Honorary Captain Peters (right) with Jude Terry, the Royal Navy's first female admiral (2022)

Peters was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to athletics in the 1973 New Year Honours.<ref name="LG 29 December 1972">Template:London Gazette</ref> For services to sport, she was promoted in the same Order to Commander (CBE) in the 1990 Birthday Honours<ref name="LG 15 June 1990">Template:London Gazette</ref> and again to Dame Commander (DBE) in the 2000 Birthday Honours.<ref name="LG 19 June 2000">Template:London Gazette</ref> In the 2015 New Year Honours, she was awarded as Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH), also for services to sport and the community in Northern Ireland,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 2017, she was made a Dame of the Order of Saint John (DStJ).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Peters was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter (LG) on 27 February 2019, and therefore granted the title Lady.<ref name=garter>Template:Cite web</ref> She represented the Order at the 2023 coronation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Northern Ireland's premier athletics track, on the outskirts of Belfast, is named after her. A statue of her stands within it.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In April 2009 she was named the Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast;<ref name="bbcnews">Template:Cite news</ref> she retired from the post in 2014, being succeeded by Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Peters is a Freeman of the Cities of Lisburn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Belfast.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

On 1 August 2012, Peters was made an Honorary Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve.<ref name="LG 21 August 2012">Template:London Gazette</ref>

External links

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

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