Matthew Pinsent

Sir Matthew Pinsent

Personal information
Birth name	Matthew Clive Pinsent
Nationality	British
Born	(1970-10-10) 10 October 1970 Holt, Norfolk, England, UK
Height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) (2004)
Weight	17 st (110 kg) (2004)
Website	www.matthewpinsent.com
Sport
Country	United Kingdom
Sport	Men's rowing
Event(s)	Coxless pair, coxless four
College team	Oxford University Boat Club
Club	Leander Club
Coached by	Jürgen Gröbler
Retired	2004
Medal record Men's rowing Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona Coxless Pair 1996 Atlanta Coxless Pair 2000 Sydney Coxless Four 2004 Athens Coxless Four World Rowing Championships 1991 Vienna Coxless Pair 1993 Račice Coxless Pair 1994 Indianapolis Coxless Pair 1995 Tampere Coxless Pair 1997 Aiguebelette Coxless Four 1998 Cologne Coxless Four 1999 St. Catharines Coxless Four 2001 Lucerne Coxless Pair 2001 Lucerne Coxed Pair 2002 Seville Coxless Pair 1989 Bled Coxed Four 1990 Tasmania Coxless Pair

Sir Matthew Clive Pinsent CBE (/ˈpɪnˌsənt/; born 10 October 1970) is an English rower and broadcaster. During his rowing career, he won 10 world championship gold medals and four consecutive Olympic gold medals, of which three were with Sir Steve Redgrave.

Since retiring, he has worked as a sports broadcaster with the BBC.

Background

Pinsent was born in Holt, Norfolk, the son of Reverend Ewen Macpherson Pinsent, curate of St Andrew's parish church.

His grandfather Clive Pinsent was a younger son of Sir Richard Pinsent, 1st Baronet, President of the Law Society between 1918 and 1919.^[1] Pinsent is directly descended from Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and thus from King Edward I and William the Conqueror. Sir George Anson is also an ancestor.^[2]

Rowing

Student rower

Matthew Pinsent attended Aysgarth School in North Yorkshire before he began rowing at Eton College. He began his international career at the Junior World Rowing Championships in 1987. He raced again in 1988, winning the junior coxless pairs with Tim Foster.

After finishing school, Pinsent studied Geography at St Catherine's College, Oxford. While a student, he competed in three Boat Races, winning in 1990 and 1991 but unsuccessful in 1993 (when he was Boat Club President), having taken a year out in 1992 in order to concentrate on preparing for the Barcelona Olympics.

International career

In 1990, while still at Oxford, he joined Steve Redgrave in the coxless pair at the World Rowing Championships, winning bronze. This was the beginning of a long partnership, and the pair won at the World Championships in 1991, and at the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996.

In 2000 he won Olympic gold again as part of a coxless four with Redgrave, James Cracknell and Tim Foster. In August 2000, the month prior to winning gold in Sydney, he took part in a 3-part BBC documentary entitled Gold Fever. This followed the coxless four team in the years leading up to the Olympics, including video diaries recording the highs and lows in the quest for what would be Pinsent's third consecutive gold.

Pinsent and Cracknell then formed a men's coxless pair and won the coxless and coxed pairs (with Neil Chugani coxing) in the 2001 World Championships, and the coxless pair in 2002. However, after a disappointing 2003 season that saw Pinsent's first World Championships defeat since 1990, he and Cracknell moved to the men's coxless four for 2004.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Pinsent's fourth Olympic Games, Pinsent stroked the boat, with Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams. In a close race with world champions Canada, they again won gold.

Pinsent was elected to the International Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission in 2001, replacing Jan Železný. In 2004, at the Athens Olympics, Pinsent failed to secure re-election to the post, being replaced by Železný.^[3]

The 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m), 17 stone (110 kg)^[4] Pinsent had at one time the largest lung capacity recorded for a sportsman at 8.5 litres. This has since been surpassed by fellow rower Pete Reed who has been measured at 11.68 litres.^[5]

Achievements

Olympic Games

• 2004 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Steve Williams, Ed Coode)
• 2000 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)
• 1996 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1992 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)

World Championships

• 2003 – 4th, Coxless Pair (with James Cracknell)
• 2002 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with James Cracknell)
• 2001 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with James Cracknell)
• 2001 – Gold, Coxed Pair (with James Cracknell, Neil Chugani)
• 1999 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Ed Coode, Steve Redgrave)
• 1998 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)
• 1997 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)
• 1995 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1994 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1993 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1991 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1990 – Bronze, Coxless Pair (with Steve Redgrave)
• 1989 – Bronze, Coxed Four (with Terry Dillon, Steve Turner, Gavin Stewart, Vaughan Thomas)

Junior World Championships

• 1988 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Tim Foster)
• 1987 – 4th, Eight

Career after rowing

Pinsent announced his retirement from rowing on 30 November 2004,^[6] and was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours list announced on 31 December 2004.^[7]

He had already been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1993,^[8] raised to Commander in 2001.^[9] He was awarded the Thomas Keller Medal by the International Rowing Federation in 2005.^[10]

Since retiring from rowing, Pinsent has worked for the BBC as a sports bulletin presenter and reporter. His assignments have included interviewing Dwain Chambers for Inside Sport, where Chambers confessed to taking drugs,^[11][12] and visiting gymnastics training centre in China where he found evidence of children being beaten, leading to IOC President Jacques Rogge to order an inquiry.^[13] He was part of the BBC commentary team at the London 2012 Olympics.

In June 2012, Pinsent rowed on the Gloriana as part of the royal pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.^[14] He appeared again on the Gloriana the following month, bearing the olympic torch as it crossed the river Thames.^[15]

Pinsent directed "Unbelievable - The Chad Le Clos Story", a documentary following Chad Le Clos and his family for 18 months in the run up to the 2016 Summer Olympics, which was first broadcast in July 2016.^[16][17]

Personal life

Pinsent is married to Demetra Koutsoukos, a businesswoman and former partner at McKinsey & Co.^[18] The couple met at Oxford, where Demetra was a Rhodes Scholar, from Harvard.^[19]

They have three children: twin boys, Jonah and Lucas (born 2006) and a daughter, Eve (born 2008).^[20]

Styles and honours

• Mr Matthew Pinsent (1970–1992)
• Mr Matthew Pinsent, MBE (1993–2000)
• Mr Matthew Pinsent, CBE (2001–2004)
• Sir Matthew Pinsent, CBE (2005—)

Bibliography

• Pinsent, Matthew (2 September 2004). A Lifetime in a Race. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-190149-3. 

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matthew Pinsent.

• Official website
• Matthew Pinsent at WorldRowing.com from FISA