Matthew "Matt" Favier (born 16 October 1965)[1] is an Australian sport administrator. He was appointed the eighth Director of the Australian Institute of Sport in December 2011.[2] [3]
Favier was educated at Tully State High School in Queensland, has a Bachelor of Education in Physical Education from the University of Canberra and an MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney.[4]
He held an Australian Institute of Sport track and field scholarship from 1983 to 1986. Favier, an 800m runner, was coached by Pat Clohessy.[5][6] 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.[1]
From 1988 to 1993, Favier was a physical education teacher in the Australian Capital Territory school system.[citation needed]
In 1994, Favier moved into high performance sport administration and has since worked for a range of Australian and British sports organizations: 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) and Australian Institute of Sport (2012 -).[2][7][8]
He has been an athletics coach, and while in the United Kingdom coached British sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, a former youth world champion.[7]
His appointment as Director of the Australian Institute of Sport worried some British sports officials, as it could have impacted Great Britain’s medal tally at the 2012 London Olympics.[8] He is the second AIS scholarship holder to be appointed Director[citation needed], the first being Robert De Castella (1990-1995).
In June 2017, Favier resigned as AIS Director after being appointed Chief Executive Officer at Hockey Australia. [9]
He was the inaugural inductee to the University of Canberra Sport Walk of Fame in 2022.[10]
He was married to Jane Flemming, a former AIS scholarship holder and dual Commonwealth Games athletics gold medallist.[11]