Matthew Sates
Teen world champion
Medallists in the 200m Individual Medley at the 2022 FINA World Short Course Championships in Melbourne, Australia. 19-year-old Matthew Sates, with Carson Foster (USA) and Finaly Knox (Canada).
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Matt was the youngest swimmer in the 200IM, when he finished in 14th place.
Matthew Sates with coach Wayne Ridden of the Seals SC, Pietermaritzburg
A product of the Merchiston Preparatory School and St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg, Matt has been swimming coach Wayne Riddin at the 'Maritzburg Seals Swimming Club since 2012.
In August of 2019 (recently turned 16), he won South African Short Course National Championships titles in the 200 breaststroke, 200 IM, and 400 IM, and had several other individual top 5 finishes – including finishing as the runner-up in the 100 butterfly.
In May 2021, at the 4th SA Grand Prix swimming gala, held at King's Park in Durban, the 17-year-old Matt took 1.48 seconds from his season best of 1:59.02 to 1:57.60. In the USA this would rank No. 3 all-time in 17-18 age group history, only behind Carson Foster (1:57.59, 2019) and Michael Phelps (1:55.94, 2003). The South African national record of 1:57.03 was set by Darian Townsend at the 2009 French Championships. This was a qualification time for the Tokyo Olympic Games 200-metre individual medley. He also qualified for the 100-metre butterfly in 51.83 seconds.
In the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup, which consisted of four competitions across two continents in October 2021 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. Sates set his first world junior record of the World Cup circuit at the first stop, in Berlin with a time of 1:51.45 in the 200-metre individual medley on 2 October. He set another Junior World record the following day - 1:40,65 in the 200m freestyle, and followed this up with a third record four days later, on 7 October, at the second stop of the World Cup, held in Budapest, in the 400-metre freestyle. His time in the IM was the eighth fastest swim in the event in history, just two spots and 31-hundredths of a second behind Caeleb Dressel of the United States.
After finishing matric at St Charles College in 2021, Matt took up a scholarship to swim at the University of Georgia in January 2022. He only stayed there for three months, which was long enough for him to qualify for the NCAA Championships. At this event, he won the 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships. Sates negative-split his race by 1.5 seconds, going out in 2:04.07 and coming home in 2:02.25. He also won a silver in the 4x200 freestyle relay and a bronze in the 200-yard freestyle.
After one semester at Georgia, Sates decided to end his very brief NCAA career. On April 14, 2022, Sates turned pro, signing with the Newton Agency and returning to his hometown of Pietermaritzburg to train with coach Wayne Ridden.
On 13th December 2022, at the 16th FINA World Short Course Championships held in Melbourne, Matthew Sates won the world title and gold medal in the 200-metre individual medley with an African record, Commonwealth record, and South African record time of 1:50.15. In the process, Sates became the second fastest man in history in the event, with only world record holder Ryan Lochte (1:49.63) having gone quicker.
Age 14 - Matthew Sates broke the SA 14 years age group record in 100 Butterfly in a time of 56.37 sec.
St Charles College
May 7, 2021
The Olympic dream for one of our St Charles College boys just became a bit more real this week! We are so proud of our current Matric pupil and swimming captain, Matthew Sates, who has achieved an Olympic Qualifying time in the Men's 200m Individual Medley. The goal was 1:59,67 and Matthew clocked 1:59,02, which is also a personal best, and right when it counted most! We wish him well as he can now start preparing for the Tokyo Olympic Games which are scheduled to start in less than 3 months’ time.
Matthew Sates lands South Africa’s first world title at Melbourne gala
13 December 2022 - David Isaacson
The king has a crown at last. Matthew Sates, after an up and down 12 months, landed the first global title of his career when he won the 200m individual medley at the world short-course championships in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday night.
Sates, the top male swimmer of the World Cup series last year, missed out on the 2021 edition of the championships because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
He bounced back with an NCAA title at the US collegiate swimming finals, but then endured disappointing campaigns at the world long-course championships in Budapest and Commonwealth Games.
The 19-year-old Pietermaritzburg swimmer led after the opening butterfly leg and was third after the backstroke, the weakest of his four strokes. Then he powered back into the lead in the breaststroke and put the hammer down in the final two laps of freestyle to win in a 1min 50.15sec African record.
American Carson Foster was second in 1:50.96 and Finlay Knox of Canada third in 1:51.04.
Sates had been second in his heat behind Seto in 1:52.52, which was joint-fourth quickest overall, but he found that extra gear in the final.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Sates, whose previous personal best in this event was 1:51.45.
Matt Sates storms to gold for SA at World Short-Course Champs
South Africa’s campaign got off to an explosive start at the World Short-Course Swimming Championships, with teenager Matthew Sates leading the charge by securing his maiden global title in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Sates rocketed across the 25-metre pool to win gold in the men’s 200m individual medley, with the former World Cup series champion touching the wall first in 1:50.15 and setting a new African record.
Though he had qualified only fourth fastest in the morning heats, 19-year-old Sates was in superb form in the final, finishing well clear of American swimmer Carson Foster, who secured the silver medal in 1:50.96. In the process, Sates became the second fastest man in history in the event, with only world record holder Ryan Lochte (1:49.63) having gone quicker.
“I don’t even know what to say…,” a thrilled Sates said afterwards, thanking everyone from teammates and coaches, to his grandparents, mom and the crowd.
“I feel good. I wasn’t expecting it so I’m very happy.”
Matthew Sates wins his second medal at the world championships
17 December 2022
Matthew Sates won his second medal of the world short-course championships in Melbourne on Saturday, taking the 400m individual medley bronze to add to his 200m IM gold.
Sates clocked 3 min 59.21 sec to shave 0.02 sec off the SA record set by Chad Le Clos in 2013.
2022 NCAA Men’s Championships: Matthew Sates Sets 500 Free Meet Record in Just Fourth Ever 500 Swim
Swimming World Magazine - 24 March 2022
The 2022 NCAA Men’s Division I Swimming and Diving Championship continued with the finals of the 500-yard freestyle from McAuley Aquatic Center on the campus of Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
How fast was the start of the individual races during prelims? So fast that Olympic champion Bobby Finke went a 4:11.77 and didn’t even make the A final.
In the prelims, Georgia’s Matthew Sates picked up his already fast pace at about the 350 mark and touched in 4:08.73.
In the final, the race started with a hushed crowd as everyone in the building waited to see who was going to make their move first, especially with how fast the prelims were across the board.
Kieran Smith took the lead at the 100 mark from Lane 2. He held the lead through the 200 mark. Texas’Luke Hobson made a slight move ahead of the pack during that span but was still behind Smith until the 350 mark when they turned about the same time, with Sates closing.
Sates made his move at the 350 again and rocketed past Hobson and Smith. Meanwhile, teammate Jake Magahey made a similar move and rode the wave to second place. Sates broke the meet record at 4:06.61, three-tenths off the NCAA overall record.
Magahey was second in 4:07.38 after his late charge, also breaking the previous meet record of 4:07.97 that he set last year as the NCAA champion in this event.
Hobson finished third in 4:08.42, ahead of Smith (4:08.68).
“It was a good swim. The title at NCAAs has been a goal for the last month since I got to Georgia,” Sates said. “I am getting used to yards and the 500. I still have a lot to learn and improve and I am happy with the swim. That was my fourth 500 (ever), my second final.”
He is still working on the strategy, too.
“This final was supposed to be a 300 then 200 (strategy) but I actually miscounted. So I did it 150, so a little bit to learn. My strategy is to finish hard,” he said.
SA swim star Sates quits American university to turn professional
14 April 2022
Newly crowned NCAA champion Matthew Sates is quitting university in the US to return home to Pietermaritzburg to focus on his swimming career as a professional.
Agent Lee-Roy Newton said in a statement on Thursday he had signed the 18-year-old swimmer, who owns three world junior records in the short-course pool — in the 200m individual medley and the 200m and 400m freestyle.
Sates, the overall winner of the World Cup series last year, moved to the University of Georgia early in 2022 and won the 500-yard freestyle at the highly competitive collegiate championships last month before returning for the national championships in Gqeberha.
He won four SA titles, including the blue riband 100m freestyle.
But the 18-year-old decided to head back to home waters in Pietermaritzburg, where he will reconnect with long-time mentor Wayde Riddin, a former SA head coach from 1999 and 2000.
College rules prevent athletes from earning money from sport. Riddin underwent back surgery early in the year and, with him out of action, it is understood Sates went to the US to try out the college scene, which he didn’t find entirely to his suiting.
“I love swimming and for as long as I can remember I dreamed of competing on the world’s biggest stage as a professional,” Sates said in the Newton Agency statement.
“It takes an expert team around you though to make this happen, so I am excited to join Newton Agency as I take this next step in my career,” he added, thanking Riddin and his Seals club, where he started swimming a decade ago.
“I wouldn’t be where I am without them. I also want to thank everyone at the University of Georgia ... as well as my teammates, for giving me the confidence to take this step.”
The American collegiate system has produced several of SA’s swimming stars in the past, like breaststroke queen Penny Heyns and freestyle kings Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling and Lyndon Ferns, all members of the victorious 4x100m freestyle relay team at Athens 2004.
The fourth member, Darian Townsend, had been coached by Riddin for much of his career beforehand.
But since then, not a single of SA’s Olympic 20 medals from 2008 to 2020 has come from a US student in any sport. The closest was track sprinter Anaso Jobodwana, who won the 200m bronze at the 2015 World Championships, but injury scuppered his medal chances at the 2016 Rio Games.
Sates’ successes in the past six months or so have all come in short-course competition, but this year he has two chances to show his abilities in the Olympic-sized pool, at the world championships in Budapest in June and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham from June 28 to August 8.
Sates is widely being tipped as a future superstar, including by Chad le Clos, SA’s most decorated Olympian with four medals.
“Seeing [Matthew’s] level of determination, commitment, and love of competing makes us really excited about his future and we look forward to the journey ahead to Paris 2024 and beyond with Matt,” said Newton.
