Ken Matthews

Ken Matthews (actually: Kenneth Joseph Matthews, born June 21, 1934 in Birmingham) is a former British skiers and Olympic champion.

Matthews won the 1962 gold medal in the 20 km walk at the European Championships in Belgrade. With this victory, he went at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 as the clear favorite in the race. He won the race in a time of 1:29:34 hours with a lead of 1:39 minutes over second placed, the Germans Dieter Lindner. Third place went to Volodymyr Holubnytschyj from the Soviet Union. Matthews presented with this time also a Olympic record.

In the following years he held the unofficial world record for five miles with a time of 34:21 minutes and about 10 miles, and every British record over 5 miles. In the years 1959 to 1964, he won consecutive titles each RWA over 10 miles. A victory at the Commonwealth Games was denied him, as to his playing days, this discipline has not been discharged.