Matthews first competed at the Paralympics in 1984 at the &lt;a href="1984%20Summer%20Paralympics"&gt;Stoke Mandeville/New York&lt;/a&gt; Games. He started off in the B1 class middle- and long-distance events, winning gold in all three disciplines: the 800 m, 1,500 m, and 5,000 m. Four years later, at the Games in Seoul, he retained all three titles. He again won the 5,000 m in 1992, and finished with a silver in the 800 m and bronze in the 1,500 m. This brought his medal tally to 13, eight of which were golds.