SCAC Women's VolleyballJul 7, 2016 by Megan Kaplon
Gold Medal Memories: Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook
Gold Medal Memories: Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook
What could be better than winning a gold medal in front of your home crowd? Australians Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook did just that at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
What could be better than winning a gold medal in front of your home crowd? Australians Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook did just that at the 2000 Sydney Olympics by defeating Brazil’s Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar in the women’s gold-medal match.
Pottharst and Cook won bronze at the inaugural beach volleyball Olympic competition in 1996. They played together again in the 1997 FIVB season, but medaled only once with bronze in Pusan, Korea. In 1998, they went their separate ways (Cook partnered with Angela Clarke and Liane Fenwick and Pottharst picked up Pauline Manser), but late in the 1999 season, the two Aussies joined forces once again to begin preparing for Sydney. Leading up to the 2000 Olympics, the duo won five medals on the FIVB tour, but never gold.
Not until they took the sand on Bondi Beach in front of their home crowd for the Olympics, that is. In Sydney, the 35-year-old Pottharst and 25-year-old Cook went undefeated by posting some devastating scorelines. Against the Chinese Team of Rong Chi and Zi Xiong, they won 15-2. Against Brazilians Sandra Pire and Adriana Samuel in the semifinals, the score was 15-6.
The gold-medal match, played two side-out-scoring sets to 12, finished 12-11, 12-10, with Pottharst serving an ace to earn match point and then the Brazilians shooting a pokey out of bounds to give the home team the victory.
Pottharst announced her retirement after the 2000 Olympics, but returned to competition from 2001-2004. She partnered with Cook through 2002 and played with Summer Lochowicz in the 2004 Athens Games. Cook kept competing through 2012, and became the first Australian woman to compete in five Olympic Games. She retired following the London Olympics.
Pottharst and Cook are members of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, and both women remain involved in the sport. Cook authored the book "Go Girl!" in 2001, and is the founder of the beach volleyball company Sandstorm. Pottharst is a motivational speaker.
Get to know all the beach volleyball gold medalists profiled so far in our "Gold Medal Memories" series, which will run every Thursday until the start of the Rio Olympics:
Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes
Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires
Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana
Pottharst and Cook won bronze at the inaugural beach volleyball Olympic competition in 1996. They played together again in the 1997 FIVB season, but medaled only once with bronze in Pusan, Korea. In 1998, they went their separate ways (Cook partnered with Angela Clarke and Liane Fenwick and Pottharst picked up Pauline Manser), but late in the 1999 season, the two Aussies joined forces once again to begin preparing for Sydney. Leading up to the 2000 Olympics, the duo won five medals on the FIVB tour, but never gold.
Not until they took the sand on Bondi Beach in front of their home crowd for the Olympics, that is. In Sydney, the 35-year-old Pottharst and 25-year-old Cook went undefeated by posting some devastating scorelines. Against the Chinese Team of Rong Chi and Zi Xiong, they won 15-2. Against Brazilians Sandra Pire and Adriana Samuel in the semifinals, the score was 15-6.
The gold-medal match, played two side-out-scoring sets to 12, finished 12-11, 12-10, with Pottharst serving an ace to earn match point and then the Brazilians shooting a pokey out of bounds to give the home team the victory.
Pottharst announced her retirement after the 2000 Olympics, but returned to competition from 2001-2004. She partnered with Cook through 2002 and played with Summer Lochowicz in the 2004 Athens Games. Cook kept competing through 2012, and became the first Australian woman to compete in five Olympic Games. She retired following the London Olympics.
Pottharst and Cook are members of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, and both women remain involved in the sport. Cook authored the book "Go Girl!" in 2001, and is the founder of the beach volleyball company Sandstorm. Pottharst is a motivational speaker.
Get to know all the beach volleyball gold medalists profiled so far in our "Gold Medal Memories" series, which will run every Thursday until the start of the Rio Olympics:
Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes
Jackie Silva and Sandra Pires
Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana