Matthew Philip Syed (born 2 November 1970) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and former

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player. He competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years. He was three times the men's singles champion at the

Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships The Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships was born at a meeting of Commonwealth delegates in Munich at the 1969 World Championships. Prior to inclusion in the Commonwealth Games proper in 2002, 15 Commonwealth Championships have taken place since ...

(in 1997, 2000 and 2001), and also competed for Great Britain in two

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

, at Barcelona in 1992 and at Sydney in 2000. He also embarked on a journalism career, having worked for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' newspaper since 1999. He has published six books, ''Bounce'' in 2010, ''Black Box Thinking'' in 2015, ''The Greatest'' in 2017, ''You Are Awesome'' in 2018, ''Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking'' in 2019, and ''Dare to be You'' in 2020.

Early life

Syed was born in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. His father, Abbas Syed, was a Pakistani immigrant to Britain who converted from

Shia Islam Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, m ...

to Christianity, and his mother is Welsh. He attended the

Maiden Erlegh School Maiden Erlegh School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Earley (near Reading) in Berkshire, England. It was established in 1962 as a Comprehensive school secondary school to serve the families of Wokingham. Today i ...

Earley Earley is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Wokingham, Berkshire, England. Along with the neighbouring town of Woodley, the Office for National Statistics places Earley within the Reading/Wokingham Urban Area; for the purposes of local ...

near Reading, then studied at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, where he graduated with

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in PPE in 1995.

Sporting career

A right-handed table-tennis player, Syed was the top ranked player in England for nearly 10 years. He won many titles with his usually defensive style. He reached his top world ranking of 25 at the end of 1998. He reached the final of the European Youth Championships in 1985, losing to

Dmitry Mazunov Dmitry Vyacheslavovich Mazunov (russian: Дмитрий Вячеславович Мазунов; born 12 May 1971 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian SFSR) is a Russian table tennis player. He won a bronze medal, along with his brother Andrey Mazunov, i ...

. He was a member of the English team that won the European title in 1986. He represented Great Britain in the men's singles at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, but failed to reach the second knockout stage each time. He says that he "choked" at the

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

: "when I walked out into the mega-watt light of the competition arena, I could hardly hit the ball." He was English champion four times, in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001. He also won the men's singles event at three consecutives

, in 1997 in Glasgow, 2000 in Singapore and 2001 in Delhi, and also won three titles as a member of the English men's team in 1994, 1997 and 2000. He was also a member of the England men's team that won the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Author and commentator

Syed has worked as a commentator for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

and

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

, and as a journalist for ''

'' since 1999. He is a regular pundit on radio and television, commentating on sporting, cultural and political issues. His film ''China and Table Tennis'', made for the BBC, won bronze medal at the Olympic Golden Rings ceremony in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

in 2008. Syed's style has been mocked by satirical magazine ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

''. In his second book, ''Black Box Thinking'', he argues that the key to success is a positive attitude to failure; it was published by John Murray in 2015. Syed is the co-founder of Matthew Syed Consulting. He was one of the co-founders of TTK Greenhouse, a sports-related charity. Syed hosts a

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

podcast called ''Flintoff, Savage & The Ping Pong Guy''. Alongside him on the podcast are ex-England cricketer

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-orde ...

and former Blackburn Rovers captain

Robbie Savage Robert William Savage (born 18 October 1974) is a Welsh former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder, now a association football, football pundit and director of football at club Macclesfield F.C., Macclesfie ...

. Current sporting topics are discussed on the podcast. In 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Liberal Arts by

Abertay University , mottoeng = "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom." , established = 1994 – granted University Status 1888 – Dundee Institute of Technology , type = Public , chancellor = Alice Brown , principal = Liz Bacon , head_label = Chair of C ...

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. His book ''You Are Awesome'' was published in 2018. The publisher describes it as "a positive and empowering guide to help children build resilience". A follow-up, ''Dare to be You'', was released in 2020. In 2021 he began presenting a new programme on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, ''Sideways'', about "the ideas that shape our lives".

Awards and accolades

* Best British Book Award, Children's Non-Fiction 2019 (You Are Awesome) * Winner of 2 ARIA awards for Best New Radio Show and Best New Podcast (2017) * Editorial Intelligence – Sports Commentator of the Year (2013, 2016) * HR Top 30 Most Influential Thinkers - 2017 * Perkbox Top 30 HR Influencers – 2017 * LinkedIn Top Voices in UK - 2016 * Advising the Department of Health (with Jeremy Hunt MP) - 2016 * Number 1 Thought Leader LinkedIn Award – 2016 * British Press Awards – Sports Journalist of the Year (2009, 2015) * SJA Awards - Feature Writer and Sports Columnist of the Year 2014 * British Sports Book Awards - Best New Writer (for first book, Bounce) - 2011 * British Press Awards - Sports Journalist of the Year - 2009 * Sports Feature Writer of the Year - 2008 * Men's Singles Gold Medal Winner - 2001 * Men's Singles Gold Medal Winner - 2000 * Olympian representing Great Britain - 2000 * Men's Singles Gold Medal Winner - 1997 * Men's Singles Champion - 4 x Men's National Singles Champion, 1996/97, 1997/98, 1999/00, 2000/01 * British No.1 10 Years - 1992 – 2002 * Olympian representing Great Britain - 1992

Politics

Syed stood as the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

candidate in the 2001 UK General Election in

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

, coming third in a safe Conservative seat. Syed won a place on the Labour Party's shortlist to succeed

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in the

2010 UK General Election The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...

. However, the party selected

Tom Blenkinsop Thomas Francis Blenkinsop (born 14 August 1980) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland from 2010 to 2017. A member of the Labour Party, he was an Opposition Whip under Ed Mil ...

, who had worked in Kumar's constituency office for six years. In the

2019 Conservative Party leadership election The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as prime minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been el ...

, he endorsed

Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...

Personal life

Syed is married to Kathy Weeks. They have a son and a daughter.

Books

* * * * * *

References

External links

*
Erik Lindh vs. Mattew Syed – Sear's International Challenge – Video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syed, Matthew 1970 births Living people Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in table tennis English male journalists English male table tennis players English non-fiction writers English people of Pakistani descent English people of Welsh descent English sportswriters Olympic table tennis players of Great Britain People associated with the University of Abertay Dundee People from Reading, Berkshire Table tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games The Times people British sportsperson-politicians