Matthew Syed

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Short description Template:DMCA

Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.

Matthew Syed
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found.
Syed in 2018
Born
Matthew Philip Syed

Script error: No such module "person date".
Reading, Berkshire, England
DiedScript error: No such module "person date".
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford (BA)
OccupationTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Hlist/styles.css has no content.
  • Writer
EmployerTemplate:Pluralize from textPage Template:Plainlist/styles.css has no content.
Template:Pluralize from text
OrganizationTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
AgentTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Notable creditTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
LabelTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Political party
Conservative
OpponentTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Template:Pluralize from text
SpouseTemplate:Pluralize from textKathy WeeksTemplate:Pluralize from text
PartnerTemplate:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Children2
Template:Pluralize from text
Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.Sports career
BornScript error: No such module "person date".
DiedScript error: No such module "person date".
WeightScript error: No such module "ConvertIB".
Medal record
Page Template:Infobox/mobileviewfix.css has no content.
Men's Table Tennis
Representing Script error: No such module "flag".
Gold medal – first place 2002 Manchester Men's – Team
Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".
Websitewww.matthewsyed.co.uk

Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for deprecated parameters".

Matthew Philip Syed (born 2 November 1970) is an English writer, radio presenter and former table tennis player.

Syed competed as an England table tennis international, and was the English number one. He is a three-time men's singles champion at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships[1] (in 1997, 2000 and 2001), and also competed for Great Britain in two Olympic Games: at Barcelona in 1992 and at Sydney in 2000.[2]

Syed entered journalism, and later became a writer. He has worked for The Times newspaper since 1999, and has published several books.

Early life

Syed was born in Reading, Berkshire, England. His father, Abbas Syed, was a Pakistani immigrant to Britain who converted from Islam to Christianity, and his mother is Welsh.[3][4][5]

Syed attended the Maiden Erlegh School in Earley near Reading, then studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with first-class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1995.[4][6]

Sporting career

A right-handed table-tennis player, Syed was the top-ranked player in England for nearly 10 years. 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. Syed was a member of the England 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: "when I walked out into the mega-watt light of the competition arena, I could hardly hit the ball."[7]

He was English champion four times: in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001. He also won the men's singles event at three consecutive Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships (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 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 and Eurosport, and as a journalist for The Times since 1999. He is a regular radio and television commentator 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[1] in 2008.

Syed's style has been mocked by satirical magazine Private Eye.[8]

In his second book, Black Box Thinking, which was published by John Murray in 2015, he argues that the key to success is a positive attitude to failure.[9]

Syed is the co-founder of Matthew Syed Consulting. He was one of the co-founders of TTK Greenhouse, a sports-related charity.[10]

Syed hosts a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast called Flintoff, Savage & The Ping Pong Guy with are ex-England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and former Blackburn Rovers captain Robbie Savage. Current sporting topics are discussed on the podcast.[11]

In 2016, Syed was awarded an honorary doctorate in Liberal Arts by Abertay University in Dundee.[12]

His book You Are Awesome was published in 2018. The publisher describes it as "a positive and empowering guide to help children build resilience".[13] A follow-up, Dare to be You, was released in 2020.[14]

In 2021, Syed began presenting a new programme on BBC Radio 4, Sideways, about "the ideas that shape our lives".[15] In 2022, he published his third children's book, What Do You Think? (2022).[16]

Politics

Syed stood as the Labour Party candidate in the 2001 UK General Election in Wokingham, coming third in a safe Conservative seat.[17] He won a place on the Labour shortlist to succeed Ashok Kumar for the Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in the 2010 UK General Election, but the party selected Tom Blenkinsop, who had worked in Kumar's constituency office for six years.[18]

In the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, Syed endorsed Jeremy Hunt.[19] In 2025, he formally joined the Conservative Party.[20]

Personal life

Syed is married to Kathy Weeks. They have a son and a daughter.[21][22][23][24]

Books

See also

References

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Matthew Syed – Award Winning Journalist, Best-Selling Author, & Broadcaster". Personally Speaking. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Matthew Syed". olympics.org.uk. British Olympic Association. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (30 November 2013). "My father, the immigrant". The Times. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Jacobson, Howard (17 July 2002). "Matthew Syed: An unlikely hero". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (26 September 2021). "The death of my father has taught me the real meaning of gratitude". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Matthew Syed: 'Analysing mistakes is key to success'". 31 August 2015.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (1 May 2012). "Should people accept that pressure is a fact of life?". BBC News. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  8. ^ Private Eye, "Hackwatch", issue 1287, April 2011.
  9. ^ "Black Box Thinking", Hachette UK.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Goldman's big hitter on the credit crunch - and his passion for a small London charity". Evening Standard. 13 April 2012.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Flintoff, Savage and the Ping Pong Guy". BBC Radio 5 Live. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Abertay announces honorary graduates". Abertay. 12 January 2017.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (15 May 2019). You Are Awesome. Hachette Children's. ISBN 9781526361332 – via hachettechildrens.co.uk.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Dare to be You: Defy Self-Doubt, Fearlessly Follow Your Own Path and be Confidently You! By Matthew Syed - Books". Hachette Australia. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Sideways, See The World Differently". BBC. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.What Do YOU Think? by Matthew Syed. Hachette UK. 26 April 2022. ISBN 978-1-5263-6493-7. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Vote2001 Results & Constituencies". BBC News. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hetherington, Graeme (5 April 2010). "Tom Blenkinsop, a campaign manager with steel union Community, chosen". The Northern Echo. Darlington. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gourtsoyannis, Paris (10 June 2019). "Jeremy Hunt battles Michael Gove to be top challenger to Boris Johnson". The Scotsman. Edinburgh.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (28 September 2025). "I've joined the Conservatives. No, it's not a joke — let me explain". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Kathy Weeks – Founder – Matthew Syed Consulting". LinkedIn. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."About Mathew Syed". Mathew Syed's website. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (3 October 2016). "When Teddy bit Evie, we turned to tough love". The Times.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Syed, Matthew (24 March 2018). "Kids must be willing to fail if they want to succeed". The Times.

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Authority control/config' not found.

Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Matthew_Syed&oldid=4722371"