London 26 June 2004: British rower Matthew Clive PINSENT carries the Olympic flame during the torch relay before the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens. Credit: Getty Images/Todd WarshawBorn: 10 October 1970
Birthplace: Holt (United Kingdom)
Nationality: United Kingdom
Sport: Rowing
Born: 10 October 1970
Birthplace: Holt (United Kingdom)
Nationality: United Kingdom
Sport: Rowing
AWARDS
Olympic medals:
Gold: 4
Rowing Champion in Four Olympics
Matthew Pinsent was a student at Oxford University when he won his first world championship medal (bronze) in the 1989 coxed four. He was then given the honour of becoming the coxless pair partner of rowing legend Steve Redgrave.
They won the world championship in 1991 and then took the Olympic title in 1992, winning the final by almost five seconds. The pair continued their winning ways, gaining gold medals in the next three world championships.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Redgrave and Pinsent built a lead of 3.04 seconds at the halfway mark of the final and then won without worry. It was their 100th race together.
After the Olympics, they switched to the coxless four and won three more world championships. The British crew of Redgrave, Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster was undefeated for three years until they unexpectedly placed fourth at the Lucerne meet three months before the 2000 Olympics.
At the Sydney Games, the British led the final from start to finish and managed to hold off a strong finish by the Italian crew. Redgrave, having earned gold medals in five consecutive Olympics, retired. Pinsent gained three more world championship victories, two in the coxless pair and one in the coxed pair, and then made one last appearance at the Olympics in 2004, joining with Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams in the coxless four.
In a sensational race, the British crew and the world champion Canadian crew were even for the last 700 metres. They crossed the finish line together, and it took three minutes for the officials to study the photo-finish and determine that Pinsent and his crew had won by ten centimetres. Matthew Pinsent had become only the third rower to win gold medals at four different Olympics. At the end of November 2004, Pinsent announced his retirement from his sports career.
