From exhausted eight-year-old to World Record holder: Matt Wilson’s enduring legacy

Adam Kable, the Head Coach of the New South Wales Institute of Sport’s (NSWIS) Swimming program, has praised ‘the enduring legacy’ former world breaststroke record holder, Matthew Wilson, has left for future generations of swimmers.

Wilson, aged 26, has retired from competitive swimming with several career accolades, including: 

• 2022 Budapest World Aquatics Championships Silver 4 x 100m mixed medley  

• 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games competitor  

• 2019 Gwangju World Aquatics Championships Gold 4 x 100m mixed medley 

• 2019 Equalled 200m Breaststroke World Record (2:06.67) 

• 2019 Gwangju World Aquatics Championships Silver 200m breaststroke  

• 2017 Budapest World Championships Bronze 4 x 100m mixed medley 

• 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Gold 4 x 100m medley 

• 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Bronze 200m breaststroke 

Yet, for all the Blue Mountain’s resident’s achievements, Kable said he was most proud of the man Wilson has become. 

“I’ve coached Matt since he was 14, so I’ve had the fortunate experience of watching him grow up from a shy, young lad who needed help to fix his tie, to becoming a confident young man who has left his mark – and an incredible one at that – on swimming around the world,” said Kable, pictured below with Wilson.

“His career had its highs and lows, but he’ll be forever remembered as a fierce competitor, one who wore his heart on his sleeve and just went for it. Matt’s story will be an inspiration for many swimmers in the years to come. 

“And I’m sure Matt would agree his ability to keep going despite carrying a lot of injuries since 2019 is testimony to the NSWIS team that did an outstanding job of managing him – the sport scientists, the strength & conditioners, the physiotherapists, massage therapists, the nutritionists . . . everyone – who gave him their all.

“Matt had ultimate trust in the NSWIS program and that allowed for him to swim with freedom on race day.”  

Wilson, who announced his farewell from arms on social media, recalled in last year’s NSWIS Lights Up series his inauspicious start to swimming as an eight-year-old in the under-nine boy’s 100m freestyle event at the Faulconbridge Public School’s Swimming Carnival. 

With his mother and grandmother cheering him towards what appeared to be a one-sided victory, he ran out of puff and came to a dead halt at the 75m mark. However, the disappointment that accompanied Wilson out of the pool that day shaped his future. 

“I just stopped on the lane rope and didn’t want to keep going,” he said. “I remember getting out and just feeling so embarrassed because my mum and my nan were out there, two of my biggest supporters. 

“It was from that moment I was like: ‘alright it’s going to be a goal of mine to not just do a hundred metres . . . I’m going to do it faster than everyone else’.” 

And he fulfilled his goal, equalling the world record for the 200m breaststroke in the semi final of the 2019 world championships in South Korea. 

“I heard the big cheer,” he said of the finish to that race. “I quickly turned around expecting to just say like a PB and I saw the WR next to my name and I was like, ‘holy crap like no way did I just do that’ and, yeah, it was a big walk back to where we were sitting and everyone on the way congratulating me and getting all excited and pumped up. 

“[In] that final I did lose the world record [when Russian Anton Chupkov set a new benchmark]. Yeah, it took a world record to beat me, and I think I did pretty much exactly the same time as I did [in the semi]. I’d never been under 2.07 before and I did it twice within the space of 24 hours!” 

“I just got a medal for my country at a world championship, and the eight-year-old me would have been like ‘that’s impossible!’ 

As coach Kable alluded, Wilson’s career had its challenges. He was “crushed” when he missed selection in the team that competed at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by a heartbreaking 0.26 of a second and was mortified when it seemed he’d missed Tokyo. 

 “That 2021 Olympic trial, it was a roller coaster that’s for sure,” he recalled. “I probably hadn’t done the best training block I’ve ever done, but I thought I’d still be able to hit those times and get on a team and all that stuff. 

“And then it was like the sudden passing of my Nan really took a mental hit on me and I wasn’t ‘there’. My body was there, but my head was elsewhere. And I think, you know, it was during COVID, and I didn’t get to see her before she passed away; I didn’t get to go to the funeral. And I think that took a huge hit on me. 

“I was bit off, [but] I was lucky enough to then after all that stuff went on. I remember sitting in the grandstand and Adam called me. [He] was like ‘Hey, where are you? Ron McKeon [NSW Head Coach] wants to talk to you. 

“I thought it was going to be some, you know, motivational ‘don’t give up stuff’ which was the last thing I wanted to hear at the time. So, I was a bit reluctant to go and talk to him. 

“He goes: ‘Look I heard about your Nan. We have this clause in the selection criteria which allows us to be a bit flexible with all these circumstances. And you’ve swum the time in the last 12 months so, we’re going to take you to Tokyo’ . . .  I was a whole mix of emotions.” 

And while Wilson, who was nicknamed ‘White Lightning’ when he was a schoolkid training alongside Olympians, had his tough times, he provided an insight into his resilience, and character, when he spoke about the reason he so willingly gave his heart and soul to a sport where a millisecond can be the difference between a prized gold or tears of bitter disappointment. 

“I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying,” said Wilson. “I try and try and sometimes I fail but the whole thing is learning from the failures that gets you to the pinnacle, essentially. It resonates with me. I’ve had a lot of knocks in my career I failed multiple times, but I’ve never not tried.” 

Daniel Lane, NSWIS