Malcolm Cooper
Malcolm Douglas Cooper, MBE, was a British sport shooter and founder of Accuracy International.He was the first shooter to win two consecutive gold medals in the Olympic 50 metre rifle three positions event, a feat which stood unrivalled for 28 years until the 2016 Rio Olympics, when Italian shooter Niccolò Campriani matched the record by successfully defending his three position title from the 2012 London Olympics. He won gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. In 1986 he was also world champion in 300 m Standard Rifle, a non-Olympic rifle discipline in which he claimed several European and World titles, as well as holding the World record for a period.
Cooper won twelve Commonwealth Games medals; four gold medals, five silver medals and three bronze medals and represented England at four Games from 1974 until 1990.Personal life
Cooper was born in 1947 in Camberley and learned to shoot whilst attending the Royal Hospital School at Holbrook in Suffolk, UK before his family moved to New Zealand where he attended Westlake Boys High School and learned the art of shooting small bore rifles. His father, who was in the Royal Navy was drafted there: He started shooting competitively in 1970. In 1978 he co-founded rifle making company Accuracy International. He married Sarah Robinson in 1974.
Cooper died in June 2001 after an eight-month battle with cancer. He died at his home in Eastergate, West Sussex.
