Sir Matthew Clive 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. He also carried the flag for Team GBat the opening ceremony. In August 2000, the month prior to winning gold in Sydney, he took part in a three-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 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. The, 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 9.38 litres.
Pinsent announced his retirement from rowing on 30 November 2004, and was made a Knight Bachelor in the New Year's Honours list announced on 31 December 2004. He had already been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1993, raised to Commander in 2001. He was awarded the Thomas Keller Medal by the International Rowing Federation in 2005. 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, 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. 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 and The Boat Races. He umpired his first "Blue Boat" race in 2013. In June 2012, Pinsent rowed on the Gloriana as part of the royal pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. He appeared again on the Gloriana the following month, bearing the olympic torch as it crossed the river Thames. 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. In 2020 Pinsent appeared as a contestant on Series 15 of BBC Television's Celebrity Masterchef. finishing in joint-second place.
Personal life
Pinsent is married to Demetra Koutsoukos, a businesswoman, former partner at McKinsey & Co, and current CEO of the makeup brand Charlotte Tilbury Ltd. The couple met at Oxford, where Demetra was a Rhodes Scholar, from Harvard. They have three children: twin boys, Jonah and Lucas and a daughter, Eve.
Styles and honours
Mr Matthew Pinsent
Mr Matthew Pinsent, MBE
Mr Matthew Pinsent, CBE
Sir Matthew Pinsent, CBE
Sir Matthew Pinsent, CBE, Celebrity MasterChef Semi Finalist
