Kenneth Matthews

Kenneth ("Ken") Joseph Matthews (born June 21, 1934 in Birmingham) is a retired race walker from England, who won the Olympic and the European title in the men's 20km walk during his career.

At the 1964 Summer Olympics, Matthew won the 20 kilometres walk in a new Olympic record of 1hr 29min. 34 sec. He was the only one of the four gold medallists from Great Britain who did not receive a MBE in recognition of his achievement.

Two years earlier Matthews had won the European title in Belgrade, and consequently was one of the favourites to win the Olympic title, which he did by 1min. 39sec. from Dieter Lindner. Matthews held the unofficial world best for 5 miles (34min. 21.2sec.) and 10 miles plus every U.K. record from 5 miles to two hours. Every year from 1959 to 1964 he won the RWA's 10 miles road title and in 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1964 won both the AAA's 2 miles and 7 miles track titles. There were no other titles he could win because the Commonwealth Games did not feature race walking at that time.

Matthews twice won the Lugano Trophy (1961 and 1963), the big event away from the major games in race walking. Fourteen years after his Olympic triumph he was belatedly awarded the M.B.E.

References

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