Matthew Formston (born 21 July 1978) is a legally blind Australian Professional Para Surfer and former professional Para Cyclist. Formston won gold and silver medals at the 2014 and 2015

UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships The UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships are the world championships for track cycling where athletes with a physical disability compete, organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The Championships were earlier administered by ...

and represented Australia with pilot Nick Yallouris, at the

2016 Rio Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 Sept ...

. Formston also holds three consecutive world titles for

Surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suita ...

(2017, 2018 and 2020) at the ISA Para Surfing World Championships (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.

Personal

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 Peripheral vision, or ''indirect vision'', is vision as it occurs outside the point of fixation, i.e. away from the center of gaze or, when viewed at large angles, in (or out of) the "corner of one's eye". The vast majority of the area in the ...

. He is legally blind. With a Diploma of Health Science and extensive business and competitive sport experience, Formston holds a national executive role as Head of Sustainability and

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate social impact is a form of international private business industry self-regulation, self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropy, philanthropic, activist, or chari ...

. He is also a sought after

keynote speaker A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

, 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.

Career

Competitive sports

Formston's cycling career began in 2009 while on a charity ride for the Macular Disease Foundation. The ride took Formston from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

and he successfully completed it on a single bike. In 2012, Formston was named the Central Coast Cyclist of the Year. 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. 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. 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 Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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 Chittaway Point is a suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible ...

eventually announcing his retirement from competitive cycling the same year. In 2016, Formston was awarded the

New South Wales Institute of Sport The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) is a high-performance-sports training institute in New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales government agency provides coaching, performance support, and daily training environments to help t ...

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 ''You Can't Ask That'' is an Australian TV series created by ABC (Australian TV network), ABC Television that first went to air in August 2016. its seventh season is on air in Australia. The series took a rest in 2023, but is expected to retu ...

'' 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). He won the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Australian Championships as well as the 2018 and 2020 US Adaptive Open (Gold). In addition, Formston achieved the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Dukes Ocean Fest Hawaii (Gold) and took home the 2018 Huntington Adaptive Pro (Gold). Formston has a range of surfing sponsors including Firewire, Slater Designs and

Billabong In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually permanent. It is usually an oxbow lake caused by a change in course of a river or creek, but other types of small lakes, ponds or waterholes are also called billabongs ...

Executive and professional coaching

Matt Formston is a sought after

in strategic leadership, offering executive

business coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

and professional workshop facilitation. As a Gold medallist, world title holder and

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

, Formston uses his extensive experience in

sport psychology Sport psychology is defined as the study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport. One definition of sport sees it as "any physical activity for the purposes of competition, recreation, education or health". Sport psychology i ...

, 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 The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, Californi ...

, Tesla, Pepsi Co,

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiar ...

, Lend Lease,

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

, Orthoptics Australia,

Vision Australia Vision Australia is a not-for-profit organization that acts as Australia's largest provider of services for blind or low vision people. Background Vision Australia was created in 2004 through the merger of the Royal Blind Society (RBS), the ...

and

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

. As Chair of the Macquarie Business Park Partnership, Formston has led corporate executives to deliver a modern approach to overcoming community disadvantage.

Recognition

*2012 – Central Coast Cyclist of the Year *2025 – appointed

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

in the

Australia Day Honours The Australian honours and awards system refers to all orders, decorations, and medals, as instituted by letters patent from the Monarch of Australia and countersigned by the Australian prime minister at the time, that have been progressively ...

for "significant service to people with disability, and to para sports"

References

External links

*
Cycling Australia profileWe Believe - Matt Formston and Nick YallourisPersonal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Formston, Matthew 1978 births Living people Members of the Order of Australia Australia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic cyclists for Australia Cyclists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic cyclists with a vision impairment Australian blind people Sportsmen from New South Wales Australian male cyclists