Ben Cohen

Ben Cohen is the rare athlete whose second act outshines a genuinely glittering first. A 2003 World Cup winner and towering winger for England, he had every excuse to retire into comfortable nostalgia. Instead he turned his platform toward anti-bullying work and LGBTQ rights, founding the StandUp Foundation. I find that pivot deeply admirable; there's something quietly radical about a hulking, hyper-masculine rugby star choosing to stand as a shield for the vulnerable. He upended the easy stereotype of the sport and used hard-won fame for something larger than himself. That, to me, is the more impressive try he ever scored.

Name (English)

Ben Cohen

Name (Japanese)

ベン・コーエン

Reading

べん・こーえん

Born

September 14, 1978 (age 47)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Horse

Origin

Northampton, United Kingdom

Height

188 cm

Occupation

rugby union player / LGBTQ rights activist

University

Kingsthorpe College

Awards & achievements

• Member of the Order of the British Empire

• Official sitehttp://www.standupfoundation-uk.org/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben%20Cohen%20(rugby%20union)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BC%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2278517

Tags

• rugby union player
• LGBTQ rights activist

Last updated

2026-06-20

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.