Kate Allenby
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| Full name | Katherine Fiona Allenby | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
16 March 1974 Tavistock, Devon, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals | 2004 Athens - Individual - 8th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Kate Allenby MBE (born 16 March 1974), is a British modern pentathlete who competed in two Summer Olympics, taking the bronze medal at the 2000 Games and placing in 8th place in 2004. She has won medals at four World Championships, and after retiring from sport, she became a PE teacher in Bath, England.
Early life
She was born in Tavistock, Devon,[1] but lived in Australia during her childhood.[2] Her father ran three London Marathons and played field hockey at the county level.[3] Kate joined The Pony Club and began to compete in tetrathlon, which features all the same events as the modern pentathlon except for the fencing event.[3] Her original inspiration for getting involved in athletics came from Sebastian Coe's victory in the men's 1500 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics, and she dreamt of competing at the Olympics.[4]
Career
She switched from tetrathon to modern pentathlon at the age of sixteen after her father suggested she tried fencing. She won the bronze medal at the 1994 Junior European Championship, going one place better during the following year taking the silver medal. Although she initially trained part-time while working as a fitness consultant, she received National Lottery funding in 1997 enabling her to take up full-time training.[2] Whilst ranked as the world number three in her sport in 1999, she won the sporting section of the Cosmopolitan Woman of the year Awards.[5]
Competing for the British team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Allenby won a bronze medal in modern pentathlon with team-mate Steph Cook taking the gold. She decided to continue competing following the Olympics in order to represent Britain once more at the 2004 Summer Olympics.[6]
At the 2004 Games in Athens she finished eighth in the Modern pentathlon competition.[7] Having been in second place during the swimming event, she dropped down in the rankings following the horse riding. After the final event, the 1500 metres, she congratualated her team-mate Georgina Harland who staged a comeback to take the bronze medal.[8]
She retired from modern pentathlon in 2004, but continued to compete in fencing, becoming British champion in 2005.[9] She retired completely from professional sport prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics.[1] In 2009 she was one of a number of athletes to travel to Iraq to take place in a conference in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region in the hopes of kick starting the sports policy in the area.[10] She has continued to be involved with Modern Pentathlon.
When London became the host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics, Kate was chosen to be the Director of Fence for the Modern Pentathlon event at the Games.[11] The Fence element of ModPen was held at the "Copper Box" at Olympic Park, before handing over to the Swim element at the Aquatics Centre, and then on to Greenwich Park for the Ride, and Combined Run and Shoot and finally Medals Ceremony.
Personal life
While competing, she studied for a Master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Surrey.[3] After retiring from elite sport she retrained as a teacher and is currently teaching physical education at Paragon Junior School in Bath and also is on the inspiration speakers circuit.[12][13] Prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, she carried the Olympic torch through Bath as part of the torch relay.[12]
She was awarded an MBE for services to sport in the 2008 New Year Honours List.[14] In 1997 she was voted onto the British Olympic Association athletes commission and became chair in 2003.[9] The Association nominated her to carry the Olympic torch in 2012. She lives in Limpley Stoke, Wiltshire.[11]
References
- General
- "Athlete Profile: Kate Allenby". Pentathlon.org. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- Specific
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hayward, Charlotte (11 March 2008). "How to win an Olympic medal". BBC Devon. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Kate Allenby: The winning ticket". ABC. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hubbard, Alan (11 July 1999). "The Interview: Kate Allenby - A modern daredevil rides out". The Independent. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Kate Allenby, Bronze medal winning pentathlete". Teachit Primary. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Success for Local Athletes". GP News. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ Fraser, Andrew (5 April 2004). "Road to Athens: Kate Allenby". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Kate Allenby". Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Harland surges to bronze". BBC Sport. 27 August 2004. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Kate Allenby". Team Bath. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Athlete heads for Iraq". This is Bath. 23 April 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Kate Allenby MBE to Carry Torch". Now Bath. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Kate Allenby MBE to carry Olympic Torch through Bath on 22 May". This is Bath. 10 May 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "Kate Allenby". Inspirationalspeakers.co.uk. Retrieved 30 June 2012.
- ↑ "New Year Honours for sports stars". BBC Sport. 29 December 2007. Retrieved 30 June 2012.