Quick Facts
Biography
Matthew Matt Favier (born 16 October 1965) is an Australian sport administrator and was appointed the eighth Director of the Australian Institute of Sport in December 2011.
Favier was educated at Tully State High School in Queensland, has a Bachelor of Education, Physical Education from the University of Canberra and MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Athletics career
He held an Australian Institute of Sport track and field scholarship from 1983 to 1986. Favier, an 800m runner, was coached by Pat Clohessy. He won the Junior Men’s 800m title at the 1983/84 Australian Athletics Championships. He was third in Senior Men’s 800m at the 1987/88 and 1989/90 Australian Championships. He competed in the Men's 800m at the 1985 Summer Universiade in Kobe, Japan.
Sport Administrator
From 1988 to 1993, Favier was a physical education teacher in the Australian Capital Territory school system.
In 1994, Favier moved into high performance sport administration and has since worked for a range of Australian and British sports organisations – Athletics Australia (1994-1996), Western Sydney Academy of Sport (1997-1998), Soccer Australia (1998-1999)Australian Paralympic Committee (1999-2000), Queensland Academy of Sport (2000-2003), UK Athletics (2003-2009), UK Sport (2009-2012).Austrailain Institute of Sport (2012 -).
He has been an athletics coach and while in the United Kingdom coached British sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, a former youth world champion.
His appointment as Director of the Australian Institute of Sport concerned some British sports officials that it could impact on Great Britain’s medal tally at the 2012 London Olympics. He is the second AIS scholarship holder to be appointed Director. The first being Robert De Castella (1990-1995).
He was married to Jane Flemming, a former AIS scholarship holder and dual Commonwealth Games athletics gold medallist.