Matthew Sates
Matthew Sates is a South African swimmer. He is the African record holder in the short course 200 metre freestyle, 400 metre freestyle, and 200 metre individual medley as well as the South African record holder in the 400 metre individual medley. He is the 2022 World Short Course champion in the 200 metre individual medley and bronze medalist in the 400 metre individual medley. At the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships, he won the NCAA title in the 500 yard freestyle. For the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup, he was the overall male winner, earning a total of 18 medals, including 13 gold medals.
Background and details
Sates was born on 28 July 2003 and lives in Pietermaritzburg in South Africa with his mother and sister. He reportedly became a swimmer at a young age when he followed his older brother Tim into swimming. He has said of the sport, "Swimming has just always been a part of me." He attended St. Charles College in Pietermaritzburg.He trains by Wayne Riddin at Seals Swimming Club in Pietermaritzburg and verbally committed to entering the University of Georgia in 2022 to train under Neil Versfeld, a renowned South African Olympic swimmer and coach. Competing for the Georgia Bulldogs during the 2021–2022 collegiate season, he won the NCAA title in the 500 yard freestyle in March 2022 before permanently relocating back to South Africa in April 2022 and becoming a professional swimmer.
Career
2019 World Junior Championships
At the 2019 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships, held at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Sates placed tenth in the 4×100 metre medley relay, 20th in the 200 metre individual medley with a 2:05.01, 29th in the 100 metre butterfly in 55.23 seconds, 37th in the 200 metre breaststroke with a time of 2:21.55, 40th in the 100 metre breaststroke with a 1:04.42, and 46th in the 50 metre breaststroke with a time of 30.43 seconds.2021
2020 Summer Olympics
At the 2021 South African Grand Prix in Durban in May 2021, Sates achieved Olympic Games cuts for the 200 metre individual medley, 1:57.60 in the prelims heats, and 100 metre butterfly, 51.83 seconds in a time trial. He competed in two events at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. He qualified to compete in the Olympics in May 2021 and was called "the next Michael Phelps" in the media leading up to the start of competition. At the 2020 Olympic Games, Sates finished 14th in the 200 metre individual medley, just two places behind Chase Kalisz of the United States, and 32nd in the 100 metre butterfly.2021 Swimming World Cup
In the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup, which consisted of four competitions across two continents in October 2021 and was conducted in short course metres, Sates was the overall highest-scoring male competitor with a total of 227 points across all four stops that earned him $140,000 of prize money. He also earned the most medals amongst all competitors, male or female, with a total of eighteen medals, which included thirteen gold medals, four silver medals, and one bronze medal.Sates set his first world junior record of the World Cup circuit at the first stop, in Berlin, Germany, with a time of 1:51.45 in the 200 metre individual medley on 2 October. His swim also moved him to the eighth fastest swimmer in the event in history, just two spots and 31-hundredths of a second behind Caeleb Dressel of the United States. The next day, Sates set his second world junior record of the World Cup circuit with a time of 1:40.65 in the 200 metre freestyle, where he won the gold medal and finished less than two-tenths of a second ahead of the silver medalist in the event Kyle Chalmers of Australia. These first two world junior records earned Sates the number two spot on Swimming World's "The Week That Was" honour for the week of 4 October 2021. Four days later, on 7 October, at the second stop of the World Cup, held in Budapest, Hungary, Sates set his third world junior record, this time in the 400 metre freestyle with a time of 3:37.92. Sates winning multiple medals, setting multiple world junior records, and winning the overall male title was ranked as the number one moment from the 2021 Swimming World Cup by FINA.
2021 World Short Course Championships
Sates entered to compete in five individual events, the 200 metre freestyle, 400 metre freestyle, 100 metre individual medley, 200 metre individual medley, and 400 metre individual medley, for the 2021 World Short Course Championships at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Two days before the start of the competition, Sates was announced as withdrawing from the championships due to travel restrictions making it hard for him to leave the country of South Africa due to a surge in a new variant of COVID-19.2022
On 21 January 2022, Sates arrived in Athens, Georgia in the United States to start competing collegiately as part of the Georgia Bulldogs at the University of Georgia with his first competition appearance scheduled for 29 January 2022. In his first collegiate competition, a dual meet against Emory University on 29 January, Sates won the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:33.89. He also swam a 4:31.29 in the 500 yard freestyle and a 1:49.23 in the 200 yard individual medley swimming exhibition.2022 Southeastern Conference Championships
In his first collegiate conference championships, the 2022 Southeastern Conference, SEC, Championships in February 2022, Sates swam a 1:31.82 for the lead-off leg of the 4×200 yard freestyle relay to help take second-place in 6:09.32 on day one. His time of 1:31.82 ranked Sates as the fifth-fastest male freshman in the 200 yard freestyle in the history of the NCAA, behind Townley Haas, Dean Farris, Cameron Craig, and Drew Kibler. In the prelims heats of the 500 yard freestyle on day two, Sates lowered his personal best time in the event by approximately 17 seconds to a 4:13.65 to rank third overall heading into the final. For the final of the 500 yard freestyle, Sates set a new pool record in a time of 4:09.06 and placed first, finishing over one second ahead of second-place finisher Kieran Smith. He qualified ranking first for the final of the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:32.59 in the prelims heats on day three. In the final, he won with a time of 1:31.16, breaking the pool record of 1:31.65 set in 2013 and finishing 0.23 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Brooks Curry. On Day four of competition, Sates ranked third in the prelims heat of the 200 yard butterfly, qualifying for the final with a time of 1:41.91, which was 1.83 seconds behind first-ranked Luca Urlando. In the final, he placed second with a 1:39.88, this time finishing 0.88 seconds behind Luca Urlando. For the 4×100 yard medley relay later in the session, Sates and Luca Urlando were part of the same relay team, with Sates splitting a 46.03 for the butterfly leg of the relay to help finish fourth in 3:04.76. On the fifth and final day, he led off the 4×100 yard freestyle relay in 42.71 to help achieve a time of 2:50.65 and a fourth-place finish.Following his performances at the SEC Championships, Sates swam the 400 yard individual medley in 3:41.85 and the 200 yard individual medley in 1:44.83 at the 2022 Bulldog Last Chance Meet in an attempt to see if he could qualify for the 2022 NCAA Championships in the events.