Product Description

With his last-gasp victory as part of the Great British coxless four team at the Athens Olympics, Matthew Pinsent clinched an historic fourth Olympic Gold to add to the three already won with his legendary rowing partner Steve Redgrave. In an uniquely exciting and evocative autobiography, Pinsent interweaves the build-up to Athens 2004 with the extraordinary story of his career and unforgettable partnership with Redgrave. Plucked from obscurity at the age of 20, told to partner his hero, and trained to within an inch of his life, Pinsent's story is uniquely revealing about what it takes to be a champion and the mixed blessings of success. Culminating with a nail-biting final chapter detailing the team's extraordinary victory in Athens in blow-by-blow detail, A Lifetime in a Race is a sports book in a different mould.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34051 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
A very honest book - not in a sensational way - but more revealing in the realities of training, competing and racing ... Extremely enjoyable', Daily Telegraph .'A good book, well-written, informative, engaging, revealing ... The insights Pinsent brings to his sport are worth the price alone', Sunday Times .'Pinsent is a person of many talents. One of them is writing an autobiography', The Times .'Pinsent tells his own story in A Lifetime in a Race, and tells it truthfully. ...This is another tale that rips off the page and says big, powerful things about sport, and about the frailties of big, powerful men', The Times .'The most insightful of the post Olympic books in which the super-human rower demonstrates a reflectiveness that is rare among sportspeople ... He writes superbly', Independent on Sunday .'A gripping account of his life and most recent times. He deftly conveys the sheer effort needed to survive the brutal training regimes in top-level rowing, as well as the obsessive intensity that brought him his Olympic haul', Independent .'I much enjoyed Matthew Pinsent's A lifetime in a Race, partly because he wrote it himself, partly because he turned out to be such a likeable and interesting guy, and partly because it gently taught me a great deal about rowing', John Gaustad, Evening Standard .'An honest and evocative read which details how winning a gold medal takes much more than 'merely' winning a final', Daily Mail .'Good looking, rich, a sublimely talented athlete and an excellent writer ... an incredible story adeptly told', Scotland on Sunday

Simon O'Hagan, The Independent
"The most insightful of the post Olympic books...the super-human rower demonstrated a reflectiveness that is rare among sportspeople…He writes superbly"

Daily Telegraph
"Indeed impressive...It is also a very honest book...revealing in the realities of training, competing and racing...Extremely enjoyable."

Customer Reviews

A great read!
This is a fascinating book for all rowing fans and indeed all sports fans with an interest in how things work behind the scenes of rowing.
Matthew Pinsent guides the reader through his career, from the first moments in a rowing boat as a teenager, selection in the Junior World Championships, life on the Oxford Boat Race team through to his partnership with Steve Redgrave and the formation of the coxless four, ending with a nice diary entry format of his experience leading up to and through to the Olympic final in Athens.

The only disappointing aspect of the book is there isn't really a great deal of autobiographical detail, not even when the great man's birthday is or much about his experiences off the water; such as involvement with the IOC etc... However after reading a little way into the book you soon appreciate that Matthew is a very private man and by the end of the book you will have nothing but utter admiration and respect for him as a supreme athlete and ambassador for British sport and also as the person he is. (I am a little biased as I'm a fan and also got to meet him a few days ago!)

Unless you are involved with rowing at some level you will be surprised and shocked at the tenacity, courage and willpower a rower of Olympic standard needs to achieve their dreams. It certainly makes you think of how few people there are whom could endure the training required.

The book also gives some interesting insights on dynamics and relationships within rowing clubs, teams and between rival nations. All in all, a great read!

Good as far as it goes
Pinsent is a legend. I'm a rower, so I'm biased, but he's known as a nice guy with the physiology of a small horse and an inability to lose. He's a massive man, a private personality and the junior partner to the living legend Sir Steve Redgrave. When the junior partner has four Olympic Golds and countless World Championship medals, you realise that it's time for someone to come out of the shadows.

This book isn't challenging, but it's a good read. He doesn't obviously make many allowances for non-rowers, there are plenty of technical terms in there which perhaps a non-rower might not be able to always skip over, but that's not really a criticism. What comes across clear as day is that he's someone who doesn't take for granted that what he is, what he does and what he has achieved. He seems very balance, personable, humble and grateful.

But there's so much not here that would have made the book even better. It's very factual, lots of descriptions of races and of specific events. He doesn't spend a massive amount of time analysing and parsing through the things he's experienced.

For several years he was a member of the IOC, yet this isn't even mentioned! I would have found his inside story on that shady institution fascinating. Perhaps he hankers to return or was worried that his comments might have damaged London's 20112 bid? But to not even mention it seemed strange.

Similarly, in the lead up to Sydney, one of the reasons that the Coxless Four was so popular was the TV programme Gold Fever, yet he didn't mention that for 18 months he and his crew had video diaries. It would have been interesting to learn about how that affected them.

It rolls along easily enough and you'll learn some things; non-rowers especially, will get a good picture of just what it is that drives us rowers to train for hours and hours on cold winter mornings. It's inspirational ... and there enough gaps that volume two, when it appears, will be worth reading, too.

Adrenaline drive
After having made such an impact on the world of rowing and with his recent retirement I felt compelled to read Matthew Pinsent's autobiography. It's not just a book about rowing but almost like a guide on how to achieve your goal whatever sport it is. It is such a well written and witty autobiography. I read the book in one sitting and could be heard laughing aloud and also crying (I never knew that he had a brother who died from Leukaemia). I now have nothing but respect and admiration for that gentle giant. Forget all those trashy autobiographies out there, this book will give that New Year adrenaline drive needed.