Matthew "Matt" Wearn (born 30 September 1995) is an Australian competitive sailor, Olympic champion and multiple times medalist at world championships. Wearn has been sailing since he was five years old. He chose the sport over a possible career in

Australian Rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

football. He was inspired by Beijing Olympic champions Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson who came to his local sailing club in Perth to show young sailors the gold medals they had won in the

470 class The 470 (Four-Seventy) is a double-handed monohull planing dinghy with a centreboard, Bermuda rig, and centre sheeting. Equipped with a spinnaker, trapeze and a large sail-area-to-weight ratio, it is designed to plane easily, and good teamwork is ...

Career

Wearn won silver medals at the Laser World Championships in 2018, 2019 and 2020. He qualified to represent Australia at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo 2021, winning the gold medal in Laser. In 2023 he married Belgian sailer

Emma Plasschaert Emma Plasschaert (born 1 November 1993) is a Belgian sailor. She is a two-time World Champion in the Laser Radial class (2018 and 2021). She ended fourth in that class at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Career Plasschaert is born in Ostend, the lar ...

. In the

2022 Australia Day Honours The 2022 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 2022 by the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley. The Australia ...

Wearn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. In 2023, awarded Male Able-Athlete of the Year at the AIS Sport Performance Awards.

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* * * 1995 births Living people Australian male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Australia Olympic gold medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in sailing Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Laser Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sportsmen from Western Australia 21st-century Australian people {{Australia-yachtracing-bio-stub