Nicky Cooney

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Nicky Cooney
Personal information
Birth nameNicola Val Cooney
Born1966 (age 58–59)
Rotorua, New Zealand
Sport
SportDiving
Medal record
Women's diving
Representing  New Zealand
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place 1990 Auckland 3 m springboard

Nicola Val Cooney (former married name Riordan; born 1966) is a New Zealand police officer and former diver. She represented her country at the 1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze medal at the latter. Since 2023, Cooney has been the Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander in the New Zealand Police.

Early life and family

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Cooney was born in Rotorua in 1966, the daughter of Val and Denis Cooney. Her mother was a physical education teacher and her father owned a septic-tank company. She took up diving when she was eleven years old. She began her secondary education at Rotorua Girls' High School, but later became a boarder at Waikato Diocesan School in Hamilton to be able to train daily at the deep-water pool at the University of Waikato.[1]

Diving

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In 1982, Cooney was selected for the diving squad as part the New Zealand schools swimming team that competed at the Pacific Schools Games in Brisbane.[2]

At the 1983 New Zealand national diving championships, Cooney finished second in both the women's open one-metre springboard and women's open tower events,[3][4] and won the Hansells Trophy for the highest-scoring individual dive by an age-group competitor.[5] She was subsequently named in the 15-strong New Zealand team to compete at the world age-group championships held in Hamilton later that year,[6] where she placed eighth in the 15–17 girls' one-metre springboard competition.[7]

In 1984, Cooney reached the qualification standard for the 1984 Olympic Games, but was not selected for the New Zealand team.[1] However, she began competing on the North American diving circuit during the Northern Hemisphere summer.[1] In early 1985, she was part of the four-person New Zealand team that competed in Australia at the Australia Day diving competition and at the Australia Games.[8] In March that year, Cooney won the women's three-metre and tower titles at the New Zealand diving championships, and was runner-up in the women's one-metre springboard event.[9][10]

In early 1986, Cooney was a member of the New Zealand team at the Southern Cross international diving series in Australia.[11] At the New Zealand championships in March that year, she was injured while competing in the women's platform event and had to withdraw from the event.[12] However, she recovered to win the three-metre springboard title.[13] Later that year, Cooney competed in the three-metre springboard at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, finishing fifth with a score of 469.62, a New Zealand record score for the event, surpassing the record previously held by Ann Fargher.[14][15]

In 1987, Cooney retained her national three-metre springboard title,[16] and the following year she was again overlooked for selection to represent New Zealand at the 1988 Summer Olympics.[1] In 1989, she competed at the FINA Diving World Cup in Indianapolis.[17]

At the 1990 Commonwealth Games held in Auckland, Cooney competed in the women's one-metre springboard, in which she finished in eighth place, and the three-metre springboard event where she won the bronze medal.[18] Also in 1990, Cooney was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[19]

Police career

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In 1990, Cooney joined the New Zealand Police,[1] and undertook a range of duties, including frontline and road policing.[20] After taking a six-year break from the police, she returned and became head of the road policing team in Rotorua, before serving in various managerial roles at district headquarters.[1][20] In 2023, Cooney was appointed Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Nicholas, Jill (30 July 2016). "Our people: Nicky Riordan". Rotorua Daily Post. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  2. ^ "N.Z. schools' swimming team". The Press. 10 May 1982. p. 3. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  3. ^ "Diver's three titles". The Press. 10 March 1983. p. 6. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  4. ^ "Pride intact despite Australian sweep". The Press. 14 March 1983. p. 22. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  5. ^ "Championship trophies". 14 March 1983. p. 22. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  6. ^ "N.Z. diving team named". 23 March 1983. p. 32. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  7. ^ "N.Z. diver wins bronze medal". 16 August 1983. p. 8. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  8. ^ "Diving team chosen". 24 January 1985. p. 32. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  9. ^ "Vallance in command". 12 March 1985. p. 38. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  10. ^ "Cooney wins diving duel". 14 March 1985. p. 44. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  11. ^ "Diving team named". 22 January 1986. p. 68. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  12. ^ "National diving championships". 12 March 1986. p. 8. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  13. ^ "Unruffled Vallance takes three-metre diving title". 17 March 1986. p. 23. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  14. ^ "N.Z. diving pair put in top performances". 1 August 1986. p. 7. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  15. ^ "Incessant rain nightmare for Scots cycling officials". 1 August 1986. p. 8. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  16. ^ "Individual records fall at championships". 23 March 1987. p. 25. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  17. ^ "Chinese help for divers". 20 April 1989. p. 33. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via PapersPast.
  18. ^ "Nicky Cooney". Olympic.org.nz. New Zealand Olympic Committee.
  19. ^ Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 106. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  20. ^ a b c "A job worth waiting for". Ten One Magazine. 15 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.