Louise Cole competed in the women’s 470 two-person dinghy at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games alongside Denise Lyttle, finishing 12th.

Cole set aside her university studies to commit full-time to the campaign, which she and Lyttle had begun together only five months before qualifying Ireland at the European 470 Championships in San Palomino in 1995. The pair worked intensively on physical training and had an OCI-appointed sports psychologist available, while Denise Lyttle’s father Seamus compiled detailed wind and tidal charts of the Savannah racing area.

They competed on the full European circuit in 1995 and 1996, finished 12th at the World Championships in Porto Alegre, Brazil in February 1996, and targeted a top-half-of-fleet finish in Savannah – falling just short with 13th place overall.

They achieved five individual top-ten race finishes, performing best in heavy wind conditions. Cole met her future husband at the Atlanta Games – Morgan Reeser, the USA 470 Olympic silver medallist at Barcelona 1992.