Matthew Gray (archer)

Born in Yea, Victoria, Gray is a water policeman.[1][2][3][4][5] He is from Port Stephens.[2][6] He is married, 47, and his wife is a school teacher.[6] He has two daughters.[1] He has a nursing degree.[3] While training for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he was also doing shift work at John James Hospital in Canberra.[3]

Gray competes in archery. His father bought him his first bow at a garage sale,[4] and he has been competing in archery for over thirty years.[1] He attributed becoming a cop with making him more aggressive as a competitor.[3] He was an Australian Institute of Sport archery scholarship holder.[7]

Gray has won several medals. At the 1988 World Field Championships in Bolzano, Italy, he won a bronze medal in the junior men's recurve event.[8] At the 1992 World Field Championships in Margraten, Netherlands, he was part of the Australian gold medal winning men's team alongside Clint Freeman and Tony Pitt Lancaster.[8] He won a bronze medal in the men's recurve event at the 1994 World Field Championships in Vertus, France.[8]

Gray placed 4th in the teams event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.[9] He won a gold in the men's recurve event at the 1998 European Grand Prix in Czech Republic. His teammates included Simon Fairweather, and Scott Hunter-Russell.[8] In 1999, he won a team gold medal at the world indoor championships.[10] At the 2008 World Cup in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, he was part of the Australian silver medal winning recurve team that.[8]

In March 2003, he was ranked the fourth best male Australian archer in recurve, ahead of Robert Turner. That month, he had 2520 points.[11] In 2010, he participated in World Cup competitions in Croatia, Turkey and China.[5] He attended a national team training camp in Canberra in September 2011.[12] He attended a national team training camp in Canberra in March 2012.[12] At the 2012 National Target Archery Championships, he finished fourth as a member of ANSW.[13]

In preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he trained in his garage.[1] He represented Australia at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.[1][3][14][15][16] He competed in the men's recurve archery team event where he took home a gold medal with a team score of 219, defeating Malaysia who were ranked third in the world at the time and had an event score of 212.[3][14][15][16] He also competed in the individual event on the final day of the competition. In the quarter finals, he went up against Chu Sian Cheng.[17] At the Games, he was coached by Simon Fairweather.[1] He was Australia's oldest competitor at the Games.[3] In 2010, he was hoping his Commonwealth Games experiences would prepare him for Olympic selection for 2012 in London.[1]

He has participated in three Olympic Games in the archery event.[4] He represented Australia in archery at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics.[1][2] As a thirty-five-year-old, he represented Australia in archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[1][2][6] He competed in both the team and individual events.[18] Children in his wife's class cheered for him at the Games and he kept in touch with the class during the Games.[6] Going into the knock out stage in the team competition, Australia was ranked ninth.[6]

In one of the early rounds of the 2008 Games, he lost to Chu Sian Cheng of Malaysia.[19] In September 2011, he was named to the Australian archery shadow Olympic team.[12] In October 2011, he participated in a 2012 Summer Olympics test event in London at the Lord's cricket ground.[20] In January 2012, he represented Australia at the 2012 Oceania Olympic qualifying event in New Zealand.[21] In March at the 2012 Olympic Games Nomination Shoot Results, he finished fourth with a score of 2587.[22]