“Winning is a habit. There is one more medal I’d like to win in Tokyo!” | Jamie Cooke

In 1912, the Pentathlon was introduced to the Olympic Games. To date, no British male has medalled in the event. But Great Britain’s Jamie Cooke is determined to change that. 

Having originally started his sporting life as a swimmer, Jamie’s sporting horizons were broadened when he was introduced to the triathlon. It was through the National Schools triathlon event that Jamie was noticed by the Team GB and placed onto their performance pathway. 

With horse riding, shooting, fencing, swimming and running making up the pentathlon, the training regime is gruelling, but he admits he cannot imagine doing anything else. 

“When you start adding on the other sports, you can’t get off the carousel. It’s so good to constantly have a challenge every day.  

“We can do 7 or 8 sessions every day in four or five different sports. I can’t imagine not doing all of them.” 

Jamie admits that balancing all these sports, training for both endurance and skill events, as well as maintaining the motivation to push yourself across all five events can be tricky. But the challenge is something he loves. 

“When you start adding on the other sports,
you can’t get off the carousel. It’s so
good to constantly have a challenge every day” 

“I started transitioning into the pentathlon at 16. I loved picking up new challenges, it’s every young athlete’s dream to be able to pick up challenges, have fun along the way and be constantly learning. You’ll never have a dull moment.” 

For Jamie, preparation and learning is key to any success in the sport. It is about looking at the season, and seeing which disciplines need to be focused on in order to give you the best chance of victory. 

“You can’t focus on the five sports every day because you’ll burn out. It’s like juggling or spinning plates.” 

Along with the challenges of preparing for an event that involves numerous disciplines, there is also the challenge of performing at the elite level. 

How do you go from running, with a high heart rate and adrenaline pumping through your veins, to remaining calm and composed in a shooting range? Process. 

“Knowing your process, when you are switching and running into the range. So knowing that you are switching over mentally to this skill, you need to pick up your rhythm and pick up your sites. 

“We talk a lot about being process orientated rather than goal–orientated. A lot of people will say I shot, and I hit the target but actually, if we focus on the process: ‘I picked up my sights well, I started to squeeze the trigger and then I slowly release the shot’, that’s what we’re looking for. That’s perfect shooting.” 

Alongside process, Jamie believes that it is vital to worry about yourself, not those around you, and remain focused on the job in hand. 

“Challenge yourself to perform as best as you
can and everything else will take care of itself” 

“You are actually only competing against yourself, fencing is the only one where you’re relying on your opponent on the day. 

“Challenge yourself to perform as best as you can and everything else will take care of itself.” 

In January, all the handwork, years of training and persistence to keep improving paid off. Jamie became only the second British male to win Gold at the Pentathlon World Championships. 

After being beaten out the blocks, Jamie found himself in third place coming into the final stretch of the run. But rather than settle for bronze, he believed he could win.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1De6MHJCMtA

“My dad has always said ‘don’t settle’ and he even said afterwards that he was shouting at the TV ‘Don’t settle for third, don’t settle for third.’ 

“It’s very easy to say, ‘Right I’ve got a medal here, 4th place can’t catch me, but I was really pleased with myself because I just thought ‘Let’s see what we’ve got in these legs.” 

As it turns out, a lot. As he began to kick on, Jamie realised that he had more in the tank. 

As the French leader began celebrating, Jamie found an extra gear to push past him and clinch first by 0.03 of a second in one of the greatest sporting finishes of all time. 

“The feeling was unbelievable because it’s something that British male pentathletes haven’t done before. 

It is years and years of hard work, that’s what I don’t think people quite understand. You very rarely see the hard, dark grind days that take over. 

“I was really pleased with myself because
I just thought ‘Let’s see what we’ve got in these legs” 

“What you do see is me crossing a line, celebrating and it’s all exciting, but that is the cork pop moment of a lot of hard work.” 

Just last week, Jamie added European Champion to his ever-growing list of accolades, alongside a fantastic showing for Team GB as they won men’s team gold, women’s team gold and women’s individual silver through Kate French. 

WithFrancesca Summers, Jess Varley and Jo Muir also contending for Tokyo, GB’s pentathlon team look to be in good shape. It is the same for the men, with Joe Choong having already qualified for Tokyo earlier this year.

However, Jamie wasn’t always on the path to Pentathlon glory.  In 2012, he qualified for the London 2012 Olympic Games, but wasn’t selected to compete. 

He recalls being at the M5 Gloucester service station when he received the news that he wouldn’t be competing, and acknowledges it being the biggest challenge of his career. 

“I had an emotional half an hour there while I went through the range of ‘I’m quitting, I’m retiring, I’m coming back, I hate sport, I love sport. 

“After sitting down with my parents and having a really good conversation, I came to realise that I have so much more to give in this sport.” 

“I went through the range of ‘I’m quitting,
I’m retiring, I’m coming back, I hate sport, I love sport”

Jamie competed at Rio but admits that his fencing let him down as he failed to qualify for the latter stages. Now, he looks back and admits that all the challenges he has faced has made the victories in 2019 even sweeter. 

With the European Championship victory coming so close to the Olympics, he has an added level of confidence. As Jamie says, ‘winning is a habit.’ 

He looks to have picked up the habit just in time, with the World Championships taking place in Budapest in just three weeks. 

After that, it is onto the Olympics, the last event on Jamie’s list. 

“I have won the World Cup, World Championships and the European Championships. 

“There is one more medal I’d like to win and then I can retire happy knowing that I’ve completed the Grand Slam.” 

With the form Jamie is currently in, you wouldn’t bet against him.