Roland Matthes

• Born: November 17, 1950
• Birthplace: Pössneck, East Germany (now in Germany)
• Died: December 20, 2019
• Place of death: Wertheim am Main, Germany

Sport: Swimming

Early Life

Roland Matthes, whom many consider the greatest backstroke swimmer ever, was born on November 17, 1950, in Pössneck, East Germany (now Germany). Matthes was definitely different. Although the East Germans had thousands of children training in swimming, the potential champions were all girls except for Matthes.

Matthes continued winning throughout his youth and somehow stayed popular with the other boys, whom he always defeated in practice and meets. He grew to become the German Democratic Republic’s first swimming prodigy, followed in a few years by dozens of great women performers.

The Road to Excellence

Matthes began to swim seriously at the age of ten with coach Hans Schneemann. He swam with Hans for three years and learned the basics. Matthes had talent in the freestyle and butterfly, but his strongest stroke was the backstroke. After mastering the basics, he fine-tuned his strokes with Marlies Grohe, who coached him from 1963 through the 1976 Montreal Olympics. At the age of seventeen, Matthes was a champion backstroker, winning against all of his contemporaries. His selection to East Germany’s national swimming team made his family as well as his country proud.

The magic behind Matthes’s success is difficult to pinpoint, because at that time in history, the East Germans did not publicly discuss their research or the training regimens of their most successful sports champions. Matthes’s success probably came from a combination of his excellent coaching and his own natural talent and deep determination to win and represent his country. Whatever his particular combination, it worked, and he was unbeaten from 1967 to 1974.

The Emerging Champion

During this seven-year period, Matthes broke the 100-meter backstroke record seven consecutive times and the 200-meter backstroke record nine times. Altogether, he set nineteen world records. He won the gold medal in both the 100- and the 200-meter backstroke in back-to-back Olympics, in 1968, in Mexico City and in 1972, in Munich, West Germany. In 1968, he beat US swimmer Charlie Hickcox, who had temporarily taken his world record and held all the yard records for the backstroke before the 1968 Olympics.

Matthes also won a silver medal in the 4 100-meter medley relay, in which he swam the backstroke leg even though he was the fastest East German swimmer in the butterfly and freestyle strokes as well. At the 1972 Games, he beat Mike Stamm to take the double gold in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events, and went on to help his teammates win a silver and a bronze in the medley and sprint freestyle relay competitions as well. The United States, with more good swimmers, won both.

Continuing the Story

Although the backstroke was Matthes’s best event, he also was a world-class butterflyer and freestyler, winning silver medals in the 1970 European Championships in the 100-meter freestyle and in the 1974 European Championships in the 100-meter butterfly. In the 1976 Olympic Games, Matthes, competing against American John Naber, took the bronze in the 100-meter backstroke event and did not place in the 200-meter event. He retired after the 1976 Games, considered by many as the world’s greatest backstroker of all time. Only Adolph Kiefer over the same long period of time and John Naber at his peak could contest the point.

In May 1978, Matthes married swimming superstar Kornelia Ender. The marriage did not last, but it produced a daughter, Francesca. After studying medicine and graduating with a degree in the 1980s, he dedicated his life to working as an orthopedic surgeon. At the same time, he offered advice to other athletes, both individually and as part of his practice.

Matthes died on December 20, 2019, in Wertheim am Main, Germany, at the age of sixty-nine.

Summary

Roland Matthes won medals in three Olympics and set nineteen world records in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events. He is remembered for these wins and his seven-year reign over world competition in the backstroke events. He won five European Championships and twenty-two East German Championships. He was one of the few male swimmers to stand out in East Germany, as East German women largely dominated the sport in the 1970s. Matthes was elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1981. His accomplishments as an athlete were further acknowledged in 2004 when he received the Golden Sports Pyramid.

Bibliography

Greenberg, Stan. Whitaker’s Olympic Almanack: An Encyclopaedia of the Olympic Games. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.

Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1996.

"Roland Matthes, 8-Time Olympic Medalist Swimmer, Dies at 69." Olympic Talk, NBC Sports, 21 Dec. 2019, olympics.nbcsports.com/2019/12/21/roland-matthes-dies-swimming/. Accessed 27 Aug. 2020.

Wallechinsky, David, and Jaime Loucky. The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press, 2008.