Art Cook

Art "Cookie" Cook began shooting at a 1939 Boy Scout camp and later took his shooting skills to the University of Maryland. At the 1948 Olympics he became the youngest American to ever win a gold medal in shooting by winning the English match, a record which lasted until 2008 when Vincent Hancock won gold in the skeet event. His gold was won only after a target check as he tied for first place with fellow American, Walter Tomsen, with 599 of a possible 600, which was a world record at the time. Cookie had also won the U.S. English match title in 1948 and he later won two golds (individual small-bore rifle prone and team small-bore rifle prone (with Martin Gunnarsson and the non-Olympians Presley Kendall and James Eberwine) in 1959) and one silver (individual 50 m rifle 3 positions in 1951) medal in Pan American Games competition.