Robert Matthews
Paralympic gold medallist BORN MAY 26, 1961 DIED APRIL 11, 2018 AGED 56
BECOMING the first blind athlete to run 800 metres in under two minutes was just one of 22 world records broken by the unstoppable Robert Matthews.
Not one to be held back by his visual impairment Matthews sculpted the landscape of Paralympic sport and won eight gold medals in the process.
Born with a rare degenerative eye condition, retinitis pigmentosa, Matthews was 11 when he noticed his vision was deteriorating.
By the age of 20 he had completely lost his sight.
Growing up in Kent, Matthews described himself as “incredibly shy and lacking in confidence”.
However finding an outlet through running gave him “a sense of self-worth and self-value”.
First competing at the 1984 Paralympic Games in Stoke Mandeville and New York, Matthews shot to fame by winning gold medals in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 metre races.
Retaining all three titles in Seoul’s 1988 Games he subsequently won races in Barcelona and Sydney, taking his medal tally to 13.
However his personal life was marked by tragedy when his first wife Kath unexpectedly died of a brain haemorrhage in 2003.
The following year Matthews competed in Athens, which was to be his last Paralympic Games as a track and field athlete.
He met his second wife Sarah on a holiday to New Zealand in 2006 and later emigrated there. After retiring from athletics, Matthews took up cycling, competing in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London – for New Zealand.
Adding to a long list of accolades Matthews was the first Paralympian to be appointed an MBE in 1987. His autobiography in 2009 was entitled Running Blind.
Matthews died after being diagnosed with a brain tumour last year and is survived by his wife and two children.