Melanie Kok

{{Short description|Canadian rower and neuroscientist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Melanie Kok | image = melanie kok.jpg | caption = Kok holding her bronze medal for lightweight double sculls at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing | fullname = Melanie Kok | nicknames = | nationality = {{CAN}} | strokes = | club = Ridley Graduate Boat Club | collegeteam = University of Virginia | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|mf=yes|1983|11|04}} | birth_place = Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada | hometown = St. Catharines, Ontario | death_date = | death_place = | height = 5'6" | weight = 59 kg/130 lbs. | medaltemplates = {{MedalCompetition | Olympic Games }} {{MedalBronze | 2008 Beijing | Lwt double sculls }} {{MedalCompetition | World Rowing Championships }} {{MedalGold | 2005 Kaizu | Lwt quadruple sculls }} {{MedalBronze | 2007 Munich | Lwt single sculls }} {{MedalCompetition | Pan American Games }} {{MedalSilver | 2011 Guadalajara | Quadruple sculls }} }}

'''Melanie Kok''' [pronounced "Cook"] (born November 4, 1983) is a Canadian rower and neuroscientist. Kok won a bronze team medal in the Women's Lightweight Double Sculls at the 2008 Summer Olympics with Tracy Cameron.

==Biography== Kok earned a B.A. at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she rowed as a varsity athlete for each of her four years as an undergraduate. Kok, a two-time team captain at UVa, earned All-American honours twice (2006, 2007). She was also named to the All-South Region and All-ACC teams. She went on to complete her master's degree in 2010 at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in the MiNDS Graduate Neuroscience Program. Kok went on to complete her PhD in neuroscience at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario.

==International career== Kok is a five-time member of the Canadian National Rowing team. She has won two World Rowing Championships medals: a gold in Gifu, JAP (2005) in the Lightweight Quadruple Sculls with Tracy Cameron, Mara Jones and Elizabeth Urbach, and a bronze in Munich, GER (2007) in the Lightweight Single Sculls.

She has also won two World Cup medals: a gold in Poznan, POL, and a bronze in Lucerne, SUI, both in 2008.

Kok competed at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics in the Women's Lightweight Doubles with Tracy Cameron and won a bronze team medal.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=246638&lid=headline&lpos=secStory_main |title=Double Bronze in Rowing |author=The Canadian Press|accessdate=2008-08-18|date=2008-08-18|publisher=TSN.ca}}</ref>

Kok was named the City of St. Catharines Athlete of the Year in 2005, and in 2008, as a co-winner with Olympic wrestler Tonya Verbeek.

At the 2011 Pan American Games, Kok won a silver team medal in the women's quadruple sculls.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080821161639/http://www.rowingcanada.org/national_team/bios/lightweight_women08/ Profile] at Rowing Canada * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120312093842/http://www.virginiasports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17800&ATCLID=1133297%2F Profile] at Virginiasports.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kok, Melanie}} Category:1983 births Category:Rowers from Ontario Category:Sportswomen from Ontario Category:Canadian female rowers Category:Olympic rowers for Canada Category:Rowers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Rowers at the 2011 Pan American Games Category:Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Category:Living people Category:McMaster University alumni Category:Virginia Cavaliers women's rowers Category:Olympic medalists in rowing Category:Sportspeople from Thunder Bay Category:Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:World Rowing Championships medalists for Canada Category:Pan American Games silver medalists for Canada in rowing Category:Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Category:21st-century Canadian sportswomen