Shiplake College was delighted to welcome rowing legend Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE for our final ‘An Evening With…’ event before we welcome pupils back to school.
During his rowing career, Sir Matthew won 10 world championship gold medals and four consecutive Olympic gold medals. He now works as a sports broadcaster and writer.
Mr Howe and Sir Matthew started off their conversation talking about his childhood. As the son of a vicar he did a lot of moving around when he was growing up from Norfolk to Scotland and then Hampshire.
Mr Howe asked if being 6 foot 5 he was ever tempted by any other sports at school and university.
He said: “I had to take part in all sports to begin with. It wasn’t until Sixth Form that I did rowing full time. However, I did play rugby for a while and some racket sports. I got a lot out of sports at school so it didn’t feel like I had sacrificed anything when I wanted to concentrate on rowing."
At Oxford Sir Matthew had a seriously demanding academic schedule. He studied geography but he remembers his head of faculty telling him that 'you will only do two things properly when at Oxford - and one must be geography.'
“That was a wonderful message for me. I was nervous about it that I hid the rowing on my application. But I loved that he was always a fan of doing other things that weren’t just academic.”
And, it was a good thing too, because Sir Matthew’s rowing went from strength to strength while at Oxford.
“Even before I sat my first year exams, I was in a pair with Steve Redgrave. However, sitting my finals and the small matter of the Olympics was never going to work. I went to see the master in charge of College and asked to delay my finals. They tried to talk me out of it but I gave them an ultimatum that I wouldn’t come back if they tried to stop me going.”
Was university all about academics and rowing or did he manage to take part in the fun stuff too?
“I got leave from Steve Redgrave to do the boat race in the summer. There were lots of parties afterwards. I lived out of college with people who weren’t really sporty. It was really important to me to make lots of friends - so it was great that I was still able to be part of college life. When I went back after the Olympics my year group had gone. That was a little harder socially. However, my uni years were a wonderful combination of hoovering up lots of education and having the ability to party and play sport hard.”
Mr Howe and Sir Matthew continued the conversation about the pressure to be at the top in the Olympics, rowing after Steve Redgrave’s retirement and life after rowing.
“What was I going to do next? It took a long time to work that out. I didn’t just want to do one thing and I had to come to terms with the fact that there was nothing in life that was going to feel like winning a gold medal. Working in TV is great, as well as corporate speaking and journalism. I like that I have a whole braid of things rather than just one. I’m thankful for it because rowing gave me a platform to be able to do it.”
What about the future of rowing in Great Britain?
“Rowing has developed from a small outfit to a hugely efficient one now. There is nutrition, conditioning and medical support - the support you get now is so much better. The London Olympics was the pinnacle of the British rowing story and we now have the ability to turn school boy and girl rowers (which is the engine of our sport - schools like Shiplake) into Olympic medalists in four years. I still believe we do that better than any rowing nation in the world.”
The conversation came to a close with Mr Howe posing the question: What is the biggest challenge you have faced and overcome?
“I’m going to broaden this out to be a general rowing one challenge. I feel I have a responsibility to get more people involved in our sport (rowing) who have proper challenges whether that is environmental (kids living in city centres), social economic or racial. We don’t do well outside private schools - that is where we need to take our message. It was a privilege to compete in my sport at the highest level and that privilege now comes with responsibility. I want to do that for other people now.”
Thank you so much for your heartfelt and inspiring conversation Sir Matthew!
Thank you to the Shiplake Community for joining us over the past weeks in lockdown, as well as all the amazing speakers who have inspired us and have kept us entertained.
Feedback for An Evening with Matthew Pinsent...
What a brilliant speaker to have for your finale! With really interesting and totally relevant questions too - well asked by Tyrone. I shall miss these evenings.
I thought you were both fantastic. Great questions and really revealing answers.
Congratulations on an excellent series of interviews. Highly enjoyable! Well done and thank you.
Thank you to Mr Howe for a great series of Monday night conversations. I thought Matthew Pinsent last night was very good; lots of wise advice about his sport but you can also see that it transfers to business too so not just relevant if you are a rower. I am delighted the boys are going back to school but will miss Monday evenings. Well done to Shiplake for doing something a bit different.
They often say save the best till last – what a fabulous evening with Sir Matthew Pinsent – so inspiring. His answer to your last question I have really taken to heart. Whether in our professional or personal life the challenge to make the best in life accessible to all should be a challenge we all embrace. We really can’t thank you enough for these evenings. They have, as you said, given us all something to look forward to and have been entertaining, informative and thought provoking. A huge thank you to you all.
Absolutely loved listening to Sir Matt last night - what a lovely warm-hearted guy. I am sure he inspired a lot of the rowers!
We just wanted to doff our hats for all the Monday evening talks through the latest/last lockdown. I don't doubt they took a great deal of effort to set up. Whatever their fields of human endeavour and achievement, the interviewees we saw were all fascinating.
A huge that you for the evening with Matthew Pinsent last night, really enjoyed it.
Just to say a massive thank you again for the lovely and in-depth conversation with Sir Matthew Pinsent on Monday evening last. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to Mr Howe for giving up his generous time on Monday evenings to do this and to keep us all connected through another Lockdown. Here's to brighter days ahead now, we hope!
