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United Kingdom Dame Mary Peters is an Olympic gold medallist in pentathlon and a dedicated advocate for youth sports development in Northern Ireland.
Lady Mary Peters founded the organization after winning gold in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Inspired by her win, Lady Mary Peters set up the Trust in 1975 to help fund other young athletes on their sporting journey. Over a 50 year period, the Mary Peters Trust has provided funding awards worth in excess of £1 million to more than 5,000 athletes across 50 sports. The Trust recently marked the start of its 50th anniversary year and continues to empower young athletes across Northern Ireland. The Irish American Partnership proudly supports The Mary Peters Trust. Alchemy supports the Mary Peters Trust's 50th year. Energia Group celebrates women in sport with the Mary Peters Trust.
Power NI was brought on board as the headline sponsor for Lady Mary Peters' 80th birthday event, a partnership that evolved into a year-long campaign showcasing six athletes. The Mary Peters Trust team received a boost for the final third of their target through this partnership.
Born in Halewood, Liverpool, in 1939, Mary Peters moved to Northern Ireland at the age of eleven, settling first in Ballymena and later in Belfast. Her father encouraged her early athletic pursuits, even building home practice facilities. She attended Portadown College, where her headmaster Donald Woodman and physical education teacher Kenneth McClelland introduced her to athletics and became her first coach. Peters qualified as a teacher and balanced her professional career with intensive training. Her competitive career started in 1955 at Ballymena, and over the next 17 years, she earned seven WAAA pentathlon titles and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1970.
Mary Peters achieved her most significant athletic success at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Competing in her 45th pentathlon, she won the gold medal with a new world record. She had previously participated in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, finishing fourth, and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where she placed ninth. In Munich, Peters was in second place after the 100-meter hurdles and took the lead after the shot put. Despite gaining only a 10-point lead over Heide Rosendahl-Ecker, she secured the gold medal and set a world record of 4,801 points. After her Olympic triumph, Peters continued to compete for two more years, successfully defending her pentathlon title at the 1974 Commonwealth Games during her fifth appearance.
Following her retirement from competitive athletics, Dame Mary Peters remained actively involved in sports. She was awarded the MBE in 1973, CBE in 1990, and DBE in 2000 for her services to sport and community. In 1975, she established the Mary Peters Trust to support talented young athletes in Northern Ireland, both able-bodied and disabled, through financial and advisory assistance. She also served as team manager for several women’s international athletic teams and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast in 2009, a role she held until 2014. Her dedication to sport was further recognized with her appointment as a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter in 2019.
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