Sir

Matthew Pinsent

CBE

Pinsent in 2018
Personal information
Nationality	British
Born	Matthew Clive Pinsent (1970-10-10)10 October 1970 (age 55) Holt, Norfolk, England
Alma mater	St Catherine's College, Oxford
Height	6 ft 5 in (196 cm)
Weight	238 lb (17.0 st; 108 kg)
Website	www.matthewpinsent.com
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Men'srowing
Event(s)	Coxless pair, coxless four
College team	Oxford University Boat Club
Club	Leander Club
Coached by	Jürgen Gröbler
Retired	2004
Medal record Men'srowing Representing Great Britain Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona Coxless pair 1996 Atlanta Coxless pair 2000 Sydney Coxless four 2004 Athens Coxless four World 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 The Boat Race The Boat Race 1990 Oxford The Boat Race 1991 Oxford The Boat Race 1993 Oxford

Sir Matthew Clive Pinsent,CBE (/ˈpɪnsənt/; born 10 October 1970) is an Englishrower and broadcaster. During his rowing career, he won 10 world championship gold medals and four consecutive Olympic gold medals.

Since retiring, he has worked as a sports broadcaster for theBBC.

Pinsent was born on 10 October 1970 inHolt,Norfolk.^[1] His father was the Rev. Ewen Macpherson Pinsent (1930–2020),^[2]curate ofSt Andrew's parish church,Kelso, Scottish Borders, and his mother, Jean Grizel, came from a distinguished military family.^[3][4]

Through his own aristocratic and military family,^[5][6] Pinsent is directly descended fromKing Edward I andWilliam the Conqueror.^[7]

Matthew Pinsent attendedAysgarth School in North Yorkshire before he began rowing atEton College. He began his international career at theWorld Rowing Junior Championships in 1987. He raced again in 1988, winning the junior coxless pairs withTim Foster.

After finishing school, Pinsent read geography atSt Catherine's College, Oxford. While a student, he competed in threeBoat Races, winning in 1990 and 1991 but was 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.

In 1990, while still at Oxford, he joinedSteve Redgrave in the coxless pair at theWorld Rowing Championships, winning bronze. This was the beginning of a long partnership, and the pair won at theWorld 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 andTim Foster. He also carried the flag forTeam GB at theopening ceremony. In August 2000, the month prior to winning gold inSydney, he took part in a three-part BBC documentary entitledGold 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.

He was the subject ofThis Is Your Life in November 2000 when he was surprised byMichael Aspel during a party celebrating the achievements of the British Olympic Association at the London Aquarium.^{[citation needed]}

Pinsent and Cracknell then formed a men's coxless pair and won the coxless and coxed pairs (withNeil Chugani coxing) in the2001 World Championships, and the coxless pairin 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 the2004 Summer Olympics inAthens, Pinsent's fourth Olympic Games, Pinsent stroked the boat, with Cracknell,Ed Coode andSteve Williams. In a close race with world championsCanada, they again won gold.

Pinsent was elected to theInternational Olympic Committee's Athletes' Commission in 2001, replacingJan Železný. In 2004, at the Athens Olympics, Pinsent failed to secure re-election to the post, being replaced by Železný.^[8]

The 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m), 17 stone (110 kg)^[9] Pinsent had at one time the largestlung capacity recorded for a sportsman at 8.5 litres. This has since been surpassed by fellow rowerPete Reed who has been measured at 11.68 litres.^[10]

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

• 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)

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

Pinsent announced his retirement from rowing on 30 November 2004,^[11] and was made aKnight Bachelor in theNew Year's Honours list announced on 31 December 2004.^[12]

He had already been appointed a Member of theOrder of the British Empire in 1993,^[13] raised to Commander in 2001.^[14] He was awarded theThomas Keller Medal by theInternational Rowing Federation in 2005.^[15]

Since retiring from rowing, Pinsent has worked for theBBC as a sports bulletin presenter and reporter. His assignments have included interviewingDwain Chambers forInside Sport, where Chambers confessed to taking drugs,^[16][17] and visiting gymnastics training centre in China where he found evidence of children being beaten, leading toIOC PresidentJacques Rogge to order an inquiry.^[18] He has also worked on a number ofOlympic Games for the corporation. AtBeijing 2008,Vancouver 2010,London 2012,Sochi 2014,Rio 2016 andBeijing 2022, Pinsent worked as a general reporter, compiling reports from sports and events across the games.^{[19][20][21][22][23][24]} At theTokyo 2020 andParis 2024 Olympics, Pinsent was also the water-side reporter for the rowing and canoeing events.^[25][26] Pinsent also reported from theDelhi 2010 andGlasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.^[27][28]

Pinsent has maintained his ties to rowing as an umpire or commentator of key events on the rowing calendar such as the Olympics,Henley Royal Regatta^[29] andThe Boat Races.^[30] He umpired his first "Blue Boat" race in2013.^[31]

In June 2012, Pinsent rowed on theGloriana as part of the royal pageant for theDiamond Jubilee ofElizabeth II.^[32] He appeared again on theGloriana the following month, bearing the olympic torch as it crossed the river Thames.^[33]

Pinsent directed "Unbelievable – The Chad Le Clos Story", a documentary followingChad Le Clos and his family for 18 months in the run up to the2016 Summer Olympics, which was first broadcast in July 2016.^[34][35]

In 2020 Pinsent appeared as a contestant on Series 15 of BBC Television'sCelebrity Masterchef, finishing in joint-second place.^[36]

Pinsent is married to Demetra Koutsoukos, a businesswoman, former partner atMcKinsey & Co,^[37] and current CEO of the makeup brandCharlotte Tilbury Ltd.^[38] The couple met at Oxford, where Koutsoukos was aRhodes Scholar from Harvard.^[39]

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

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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related toMatthew Pinsent.

• Official website
• Matthew Pinsent atWorld Rowing (archive)
• Matthew Pinsent atTeam GB
• Matthew Pinsent atOlympics.com
• Matthew Pinsent at Olympic.org (archived)
• Matthew Pinsent atOlympedia

• 1970 births
• Living people
• People from Holt, Norfolk
• English people of Scottish descent
• English male rowers
• Olympic rowers for Great Britain
• Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain
• Rowers at the 1992 Summer Olympics
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• British International Olympic Committee members
• People educated at Aysgarth School
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• Oxford University Boat Club rowers
• Knights Bachelor
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• English television presenters
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• Stewards of Henley Royal Regatta
• Members of Leander Club
• Olympic medalists in rowing
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• Sportspeople from Yorkshire
• World Rowing Championships medalists for Great Britain
• Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
• Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
• Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
• Thomas Keller Medal recipients

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