Matthew Gray (born 25 June 1973) is an Australian archer. His day job is being a water policeman. He has participated in three Olympic Games and won a gold medal at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

Personal

Born in

Yea, Victoria Yea ( ) is a town in Victoria, Australia north-east of the state capital Melbourne at the junction of the Goulburn Valley Highway and the Melba Highway, in the Shire of Murrindindi local government area. In an area originally inhabited by the T ...

, Gray is a water policeman. He is from Port Stephens. He is married, 47, and his wife is a school teacher. He has two daughters. He has a nursing degree. While training for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he was also doing shift work at John James Hospital in Canberra.

Archery

Gray competes in

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

. His father bought him his first bow at a garage sale, and he has been competing in archery for over thirty years. He attributed becoming a cop with making him more aggressive as a competitor. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

archery scholarship holder. Gray has won several medals. At the 1988 World Field Championships in Bolzano, Italy, he won a bronze medal in the junior men's recurve event. At the 1992 World Field Championships in Margraten, Netherlands, he was part of the Australian gold medal winning men's team alongside Clint Freeman and Tony Pitt Lancaster. He won a bronze medal in the men's recurve event at the 1994 World Field Championships in Vertus, France. Gray placed 4th in the teams event at the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. He won a gold in the men's recurve event at the 1998 European Grand Prix in Czech Republic. His teammates included Simon Fairweather, and Scott Hunter-Russell. In 1999, he won a team gold medal at the world indoor championships. At the 2008 World Cup in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, he was part of the Australian silver medal winning recurve team that. In March 2003, he was ranked the fourth best male Australian archer in recurve, ahead of Robert Turner. That month, he had 2520 points. In 2010, he participated in World Cup competitions in Croatia, Turkey and China. He attended a national team training camp in Canberra in September 2011. He attended a national team training camp in Canberra in March 2012. At the 2012 National Target Archery Championships, he finished fourth as a member of ANSW. In preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he trained in his garage. He represented Australia at the

. He competed in the men's recurve archery team event where he took home a gold medal with a team score of 219, defeating Malaysia who were ranked third in the world at the time and had an event score of 212. He also competed in the individual event on the final day of the competition. In the quarter finals, he went up against

Chu Sian Cheng Cheng Chu Sian (; born 1 March 1986 in Kuala Lumpur) is an athlete from Malaysia, who competes in archery. 2008 Summer Olympics At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Cheng finished his ranking round with a total of 660 points. This gave him t ...

. At the Games, he was coached by

Simon Fairweather Simon John Fairweather, OAM (born 9 October 1969) is an archer born in Adelaide, South Australia. He is tall and weighs . Fairweather won the individual gold medal at the World Championships in Poland in 1991. Fairweather was declared the ...

. He was Australia's oldest competitor at the Games. In 2010, he was hoping his Commonwealth Games experiences would prepare him for Olympic selection for 2012 in London. He has participated in three Olympic Games in the archery event. He represented Australia in archery at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. As a thirty-five-year-old, he represented Australia in archery at the

. He competed in both the team and individual events. Children in his wife's class cheered for him at the Games and he kept in touch with the class during the Games. Going into the knock out stage in the team competition, Australia was ranked ninth. In one of the early rounds of the 2008 Games, he lost to

of Malaysia. In September 2011, he was named to the Australian archery shadow Olympic team. In October 2011, he participated in a 2012 Summer Olympics test event in London at the Lord's cricket ground. In January 2012, he represented Australia at the 2012 Oceania Olympic qualifying event in New Zealand. In March at the 2012 Olympic Games Nomination Shoot Results, he finished fourth with a score of 2587.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Matthew 1973 births Living people Archers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic archers of Australia Australian male archers Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Australian Institute of Sport archers Archers at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Australian police officers Commonwealth Games medallists in archery Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games