Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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Nickname | Formo | |||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Australia | |||||||||||||||||
Born | [1] Sydney [1] | 21 July 1978 |||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
Disability | Visual impairment | |||||||||||||||||
Club | Central Coast | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Matthew Formston (born 21 July 1978) is a legally blind Australian Professional Para Surfer and former professional Para Cyclist. [2] Formston won gold and silver medals at the 2014 and 2015 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships and represented Australia with pilot Nick Yallouris, at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. [2] Formston also holds three consecutive world titles for Surfing (2017, 2018 and 2020) at the ISA Para Surfing World Championships [3] (VI Division) as the 2016 to 2019 Australian Champion, 2018 and 2019 US Adaptive Open (Gold) and 2017, 2018, 2019 Dukes Ocean Fest Hawaii Gold medalist. [4]
Formston was born on 21 July 1978 in Sydney, New South Wales. At the age of five, Formston was diagnosed with Macular Dystrophy eventually reducing his sight to 0% central vision and 3% peripheral vision. [5] He is legally blind. With a Diploma of Health Science [6] and extensive business and competitive sport experience, Formston holds a national executive role as Head of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility. [7] He is also a sought after keynote speaker, business coach and offers strategic training workshops to promote high performing teams and resilient leadership. Matt Formston and his wife Rebecca have three children and live on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Formston's cycling career began in 2009 while on a charity ride for the Macular Disease Foundation. [8] The ride took Formston from Sydney to Melbourne and he successfully completed it on a single bike. In 2012, Formston was named the Central Coast Cyclist of the Year. [6] Formston originally rode competitively with Phillip Thuaux in 2010 before pairing with Mick Curran in 2012 as a tandem partner and the pair were known as OzTandem. [9] Curran, a fully sighted competitor, held the role of pilot for the duo. They went on to win gold in both track and road cycling on most continents around the globe and amassed 12 Australian National Titles between 2012 and 2016. [10]
In 2013, the pair won gold in the Tandem Road Race at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Canada. In 2014, Formston and Curran set a new world record in the Tandem Pursuit event clocking a time of 4:11.213. In the same year, they took home the gold medal at the 2014 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Formston and Curran competed in the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands and finished second in the Tandem Pursuit.
Formston and Curran's bond went beyond the tandem bike with the pair starting their own business known as Champion Vision.
At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Formston's new cycling pilot was Nick Yallouris from Chittaway Point, New South Wales eventually announcing his retirement from competitive cycling the same year. [11]
In 2016, Formston was awarded the New South Wales Institute of Sport Scholarship to continue his pursuit of competitive cycling and surfing.
In 2017, Formston appeared alongside Ron McCallum on the Season 2 premiere episode of ABC's You Can't Ask That entitled "Blind People".
As a professional surfer, Formston is the current Para Surfing World Champion, winning the 2017, 2018 and 2020 ISA World Para Surfing Championships (VI Division). [12] He won the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Australian Championships as well as the 2018 and 2020 US Adaptive Open (Gold). [13] In addition, Formston achieved the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Dukes Ocean Fest Hawaii (Gold) [4] and took home the 2018 Huntington Adaptive Pro (Gold).
Formston has a range of surfing sponsors including Firewire, Slater Designs and Billabong.
Matt Formston is a sought after keynote speaker in strategic leadership, offering executive business coaching and professional workshop facilitation. [14] As a Gold medallist, world title holder and Paralympian, Formston uses his extensive experience in sport psychology, visualisation, goal setting as well as corporate experience as a successful business executive to deliver tactics to turn challenges into strengths.
Formston has delivered individual and group coaching to a range of corporate executives across companies such as Hewlett Packard, Tesla, Pepsi Co, Optus, Lend Lease, Institution of Civil Engineers, Deloitte, Orthoptics Australia, Vision Australia and Macquarie University.
As Chair of the Macquarie Business Park Partnership, Formston has led corporate executives to deliver a modern approach to overcoming community disadvantage. [15]
Kieran John Modra was an Australian Paralympic swimmer and tandem cyclist. He won five gold and five bronze medals at eight Paralympic Games from 1988 to 2016, along with two silver medals at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Bryce Lindores is an Australian Paralympic tandem cyclist.
Jessica Gallagher is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier, track and field athlete, tandem cyclist and rower. She was Australia's second female Winter Paralympian, and the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, where she won a bronze medal in the women's giant slalom visually impaired.
Tandem is a para-cycling classification for cyclists that require a sighted pilot for a non-sighted rider. The UCI recommends this be coded as MB. PBS defined this group as "Athletes who are blind or visually impaired compete with no classification system. They ride tandem with a sighted “pilot.”" The Telegraph defined this classification in 2011 as "B: Athletes who are blind and visually impaired" British Cycling defines this classification as: "Blind or Visual Impaired (VI), TCB - from no light perception in either eye up to visual acuity of 6/60 and/or visual field of less than 20 degrees. Classification assessed in the best eye with the best correction. Classification will be provided by a UCI accredited classifier"
David Nicholas, is an Australian cyclist. He won silver and gold medals at the 2012 London Paralympics and a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
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Amanda Reid is an Australian Paralympic swimmer, cyclist and snowboarder. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in swimming. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, she won a silver medal in the Women's 500 m Time Trial C1–3 and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics a gold medal in the 500 m Time Trial C1–3. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, she won a gold medal in the 500 m Time Trial C1–3.
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Neil Michael Fachie is a Scottish cyclist and former track athlete, competing in events for people with a visual impairment. Fachie has competed in two Paralympics, as a sprinter in the 2008 Games in Beijing and as a tandem cyclist in London 2012. In London he won the gold medal in the Men's individual 1 km time trial and silver in the individual sprint, both with Barney Storey as his sighted pilot. Outside of the Paralympic Games, Fachie is a nineteen-time world champion and 5 times Commonwealth Games champion, creating tandem partnerships with Barney Storey, Pete Mitchell, and Olympians Craig MacLean and Matt Rotherham.
Para-cycling is the sport of cycling adapted for cyclists who have various disabilities. It is governed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The sport consists of seven different events which include road and track races. The world's elite para-cyclists compete at Track and Road Worlds Championships since 1994, the Commonwealth Games, the Paralympic Games and the World Cup since 2010.
Sophie Thornhill is a visually impaired English former racing cyclist who competed in para-cycling tandem track events. She is a double world champion, with pilot Rachel James, and a double Commonwealth gold medallist, with pilot Helen Scott, in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial events. In April 2014, she set world records in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial, piloted by James. She retired from competition in 2020.
Alistair Donohoe is an Australian cyclist, who currently rides for Australian club team Blackburn CC. Following a right arm impairment in 2009, Donohoe became a multiple medallist at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships and UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. He won two silver medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, a silver and bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and a silver and bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Brandie O’Connor is a vision impaired Australian paracyclist and has won medals at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games..
David Edwards is an Australian cyclist, who has found sporting success both individually and in tandem cycling. He piloted Kieran Modra in tandem cycling. He made his Paralympic debut at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Nick Yallouris is an Australian track cyclist. He represented Australia in the 2016 Rio Paralympics as a sighted pilot for Australian cycling Paralympian, Matthew Formston.
Shawn Cheshire is an American para-athlete and United States Army military veteran. Cheshire has competed at the National and International levels in multiple para-sports, including adaptive rowing, adaptive biathlon, tandem road para-cycling, and tandem track para-cycling.
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