Matthew Syed

Matthew Philip Syed (born 2 November 1970) is a British journalist and broadcaster. He has worked for The Times newspaper since 1999.

Prior to his journalistic career, Syed competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years. He was three times the Men's Singles Champion at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships (in 1997, 2000 and 2001), and also competed for Great Britain in two Olympic Games.

Life and career

His father, Abbas Syed, is a Pakistani emigrant to Britain who converted from Shia Islam to Christianity, and his mother is Welsh. He attended the Maiden Erlegh School in Earley near Reading, then studied PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was awarded a prizewinning First.

A right-handed table-tennis player, Syed won many titles, but 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."

Syed has worked as a commentator for the BBC and Eurosport, and as a journalist for The Times since 1999. He is a regular pundit on radio and television, commentating 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 in 2008.