cooke was born in crumpsall, manchester. he competed in the sprint and tandem sprint events at the 1972 olympic games in munich. cooke represented england at the 1974 commonwealth games in christchurch, where he won the gold medal in the tandem sprint event. along with winning the commonwealth championship he has won world masters titles 46 times including winning the sprint championship for seven consecutive years between 1996 and 2002, and 64 times national champion.