John Cooper was a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles.

He competed for Great Britain in the 1964 Summer Olympics

1964 Summer Olympics

The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...

 held in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in the 400 metre hurdles where he won the silver medal. He then joined with team mates Tim Graham, Adrian Metcalfe

Adrian Metcalfe

Adrian Metcalfe is a former British athlete, who mainly competed in the 400 meters.He competed for Great Britain in the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo in the 4 x 400m relay where he won the silver medal with his team mates Tim Graham, John Cooper and Robbie Brightwell.Metcalfe attended the...

, and Robbie Brightwell

Robbie Brightwell

Robert Ian Brightwell MBE is a former track and field athlete.He moved to England with his family in 1946 and grew up in Donnington, Shropshire...

 in the 4 x 400 metres relay where they won the silver medal. Cooper also competed in the 400 metre hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics

1968 Summer Olympics

The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...

 in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 serving as Great Britain's third-string athlete in this event, behind gold medallist David Hemery

David Hemery

David Peter Hemery, CBE, is a British former athlete, winner of the 400m hurdles at the 1968 Summer Olympics.He was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but his father's work took the family to the United States, where he attended school and graduated from Boston University.Hemery's first...

 and bronze medallist John Sherwood

John Sherwood (athlete)

John Sherwood is a British athlete, who won the bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968 for the 400 m hurdles. His time was 49.03 seconds, and he was third behind fellow British athlete David Hemery, who took gold, and German Gerhard Hennige...

.

John Cooper originally went to school at Lutterworth Grammar School;
he was killed in the Turkish Airlines Flight 981

Turkish Airlines Flight 981

Turkish Airlines Flight 981 was a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, registered TC-JAV and named the Ankara, that crashed in Fontaine-Chaalis, Oise, France, outside Senlis, on 3 March 1974...

 crash outside of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

on March 3, 1974.