Matthew Brittain

Matthew Brittain ( born May 5, 1987 in Johannesburg) is a South African rower and Olympic champion in 2012 in the lightweight coxless four.

Sporting career

The 1.84 meter tall Brittain rows for the sports club of the University of Pretoria.

Brittain in 2005 took part in the Junior World Championships. His first international medal winning Brittain 2007, when he received the silver medal in the lightweight coxless pairs with James Thompson at the U23 World Championships. Both sat by the World Rowing Championships 2007 in South Africa's lightweight coxless four, with which they occupied the 21th Place. 2008 Thompson and Brittain again won silver at the U23 World Championships. 2009 occupied Brittain with John Smith in uncontrolled lightweight two fourth place in both the U23 World Championships and at the World Championships in Poznan.

2010 Brittain rowed in the World Cup in the lightweight coxless four in the cast Andrew Polasek, Lawrence Ndlovu, Thompson and Brittain. For the World Rowing Championships in 2010 was a reshuffle: With Anthony Knight, James Thompson, John Smith and Lawrence Ndlovu of South African foursome finished in eleventh place. Also eleventh place was taken by the South African four in the cast Thompson, Brittain, Smith and Paladin in the World Rowing Championships 2011. In World Cup 2012 South African quad came in Lucerne in the cast Thompson, Brittain, Smith and Ndlovu and took second place behind the Chinese quad, but lay before the British and the Danes. In the 2012 Olympics, the Chinese did not reach the finals, the South African foursome with Thompson, Brittain, Smith and Ndlovu won Olympic Gold in front of the hosts from the UK and the Olympic title holders from Denmark. This gold medal was the first Olympic gold medal for South African rowers at all and the second medal after bronze in the coxless pairs in 2004.