Matthew Pinsent Bio - Biography

Name Matthew Pinsent
Height 6 ft 5 in
Naionality English
Date of Birth 10-October-1970
Place of Birth Holt, Norfolk, England
Famous for Rower
Matthew Pinsent 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. 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 Athletics Commission in 2001, replacing Jan Zelezny. In 2004, at the Athens Olympics, Pinsent failed to secure re-election to the post, being replaced by Zelezny. The 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m), 17 stone (110 kg) 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 Peter Reed who has been measured at 11.68 litres.