[3] As a teenager, her father encouraged her athletic career by building her home practice facilities as birthday gifts.

In the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Peters competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland and won the gold medal in the women's pentathlon.

To win the gold medal, she narrowly beat the local favourite, West Germany's Heide Rosendahl, by 10 points, setting a world record score.

After her victory, a death threat was phoned into the BBC by a man with an Irish accent: "Mary Peters is a Protestant and has won a medal for Britain.

The trust has made a large number of awards, and has a list of well-known alumni that includes Graeme McDowell, Rory McIlroy, Jonathan Rea, Darren Clarke, David Humphreys, Bethany Firth, Ryan Burnett, Carl Frampton, Paddy Barnes, Michael Conlan, Kelly Gallagher, and Michael McKillop.

Peters was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to athletics in the 1973 New Year Honours.

[14] In April 2009 she was named the Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast;[15] she retired from the post in 2014, being succeeded by Fionnuala Jay-O'Boyle.