If there’s one thing Matt Levy hates, it’s losing. Such determination has taken Matt far in life and will take him further as he aims high in his swimming career.

Born at just 25 weeks, 15 weeks premature, Matt has survived 46 operations to get him where he is today.

His greatest sporting moment is breaking the world record in the 200m freestyle short course in 2003. Since then, Matt has competed at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, the 2006 IPC World Swimming Championships and the 2007 Telstra Short Course Championships in Melbourne, where he won four silver and four bronze medals.

At the 2008 Paralympics, Matt won a gold medal as part of the 4x100m medley relay and as it was his second Games, was able to relax more and enjoy the competition and village atmosphere.

In the years since Beijing, Matt has only gotten faster. At the 2010 IPC World Championships, he won silver in the 100m breaststroke and 100m freestyle and bronze in the 50m butterfly and 200m individual medley.

Matt admires Lance Armstrong and Ian Thorpe, using them as inspiration as he aims to achieve personal bests each time he races. In his spare time he enjoys sports trivia, cooking, eating, sleeping and watching movies – typical of many young men his age – and believes his parents have been the most influential people in his life.

Matt believes there is no greater honour than representing Australia and is hoping to do that through to the London Games. Matt currently works at St George Bank as part of the Process Improvement Team.