Remembering 1963 World Archery Champion Victoria Cook

The USA’s Victoria Cook, World Archery Champion in 1963, died of a heart attack on 18 April 2019.

Born in 1933, Vicky began shooting in June 1959 when her doctor recommended fresh air and sunshine after she contracted polio and underwent surgery the previous winter.

Only three months after picking up a bow, she won her first Minnesota state championship. Two years later, she qualified for the USA national team for the 1961 World Archery Championships in Oslo, Norway, where she was part of the gold-medal winning women’s team and finished seventh individually.

She did not qualify for the team two years later, so Vicky – with friends – paid her own way to Helsinki, Finland, where she became World Archery Champion ahead of fellow US archer and defending champion Nancy Vonderheide - as well as collecting a second team gold.

Cook represented her country at world championships until 1971.

She was inducted into the Archery Hall of Fame in Springfield, Missouri in 2011. The organisation’s website states that “her desire and determination had no equal”.

Vicky remains one of the most successful amateur female archers produced by the USA. She married another archer and together they had a son and a daughter.