Matthew Dunham
Matthew Dunham started rowing in 2008 at St Peter’s School in Cambridge under Cambridge Rowing Club. He first represented New Zealand in the 2011 U21 Trans-Tasman team as a Lightweight sculler, and won every race he competed in at the Youth Cup regatta.
The following year Matt was selected into the U20 Youth Olympic team, picking up a 3rd in the quad and a 2nd in the eight. A University Worlds appearance followed in 2013 and an U23 Lightweight Men’s Double spot in 2014. Matt represented New Zealand again in the Lightweight Double a year later, finishing 4th in a very tight race. In 2016 he announced himself as a true international-level lightweight, when he went undefeated in his elite debut year with the Lightweight Men’s Coxless Four, helping the boat win World Rowing Cup Golds. In 2017 Matt again showed his class, this time beating all the heavyweight single scullers to win the Diamond Sculls at Henley Royal Regatta. This set him up well for the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota, where he produced a blistering final sprint to take Silver in the Lightweight Men’s Single sculls. In 2018 he linked up with Ben van Dalen, the new pairing working hard throughout the season to come home 4th at the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
In 2019 Matt teamed up with Harrison Somerville in the Lightweight Double sculls. The duo gathered 5th-place finishes at World Rowing Cups II, III and at the World Championship. Matt was then selected for the 2019/20 summer squad as a heavyweight sculler to try his hand at an Olympic seat.
Matt was reselected into the 2021/22 summer squad as a lightweight sculler, where he competed at the 2022 World Rowing Cup 2 in Poznan, Poland, winning the Lightweight Single Scull in a time of 6:43.07 over previous Olympians and World Champions - which was also a World Cup Best Time and 2-seconds off the World's Best Time. Matt then teamed up with Chris Stockley in the Men's Lightweight Double and went on to compete at the 2022 World Rowing Cup 3 in Lucerne, Switzerland and World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic. In a very tough field, the duo managed to finish with very tight racing and respectable performances in the B-Final.
Matt has now been named in the 2023 Elite Lightweight Men's Sculling squad, coached by Calvin Ferguson. He is one of the three Lightweight Men in the Elite Team this year. Matt joined forces with Chris Stockley again at the 2023 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland. The duo just missed out on the A-Final, where they came 8th overall in the very stacked Lightweight Double field. This event is especially highly competitive, with at least the top 12 crews having the potential to podium on any given day.
Matt also competed at the 2022 World Rowing Coastal Rowing Championship in Saundersfoot, Wales where he came away with some podium finishes, while also sitting in the coxswain seat for the NZ Coastal Womens Quad! Outside of rowing, Matt has completed a Bachelor of Management Studies at the University of Waikato and is a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar, he has also finished his Masters in Digital Business with First-Class Honours. In his spare time, Matt enjoys skating, surfing and hunting.