The crowd loved him and he loved the crowd. In the final, he delivered a near-perfect performance, defeating top challenger Ai Xinliang 149-148.

“When he shot his last arrow, I knew I was going to hit a ten,” Matt claimed.

And he did. He shot a ten and secured the title.

“I just don’t know. The little bird said, ‘Hey, you’re here now. Your time has come. You’ve been practicing forever. You brought your family here to watch.'”

The crowd cheered and he celebrated in his own way – jumping, shouting and running around the stage. Two hours earlier he had almost been eliminated, but his last arrow was upgraded from a nine to a ten, forcing it to a playoff.

“In the last four years, I have never once thought about winning a gold medal,” he said.

“It was all about having fun and making memories. It’s a pretty nice memory, isn’t it?” Matt smiled as he looked at the medal around his neck.

His family witnessed him reaching the summit and Hollywood star Jackie Chan described it as “incredible”. Everything came together to make Matt’s farewell Paralympics unforgettable. Memories were what he wanted.

“When I first walked on stage for my first game, I really had to fight back tears. I just felt like I was able to perform in front of my family, have them cheer me on and know that they had my back no matter what.”