Modern Pentathlon at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games:

Stephanie Cook (GBR) and Emily deRiel (USA) trained together at Oxford University. deRiel studied there after graduating from Yale, and took up modern pentathlon in England. deRiel took the lead by winning the opening air pistol shooting. She still led after fencing but dropped back after the swim. However, deRiel also won the fourth phase, the steeplechase, and took back the lead going in to the cross-country run. But Cook was known to be the best runner. She was only in eighth, 198 points back but was still considered dangerous. In the run, she passed deRiel about 300 metres from the line and won by about 3 seconds, and eight points. The bronze medal was won by Britain’s [Kate Allenby], causing Stephanie Cook to comment on the British medal “sweep” – “We also consider Emily British as she trains with us at Oxford.” Cook was a Medical Doctor who took time off her medical career to train for Sydney. She retired after winning three gold medals at the 2001 World Championships and went back to medicine. She had worked as a volunteer for the Israeli Ambulance Service in Jerusalem and would later work with survivors of the Gujurat earthquake.

The fourth-place finisher, Mary Beth Iagorashvili was the wife of Vaho Iagorashvili, bronze medalist in 1988, who had emigrated from Georgia to the United States after marrying Mary Beth. He competed for Georgia in 1996. He did not compete in 2000 but would represent the United States in 2004. The 1999 World Champion was Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Vőrős, who struggled throughout. She finished only 15th in the opening shooting, was 17th after fencing, and while she won the 200 freestyle swim, she would finish only 15th overall.