A four-time Olympian, Takeshi Matsuda helped ignite Japanese swimming. A four-time Olympic medallist (1 silver, 3 bronze), Matsuda also collected three World Aquatic Championship podiums (2 silver, 1 bronze) and six wins on the Swimming World Cup circuit since he got his start in the sport at age four with his local Toumi Swimming Club. Since retiring in 2016, you can find Matsuda on television as a newscaster as well as challenging himself to triathlons and full marathons.
What are your memories when you look back to the first time Fukuoka hosted the World Aquatics Championships in 2001?
I was really crushed that I just barely missed the cut as I placed third at the Japanese Swimming Trials.
At the time, I was a second-year in high school. I would travel all the way to Fukuoka. Every day, I would train in the mornings and go and see the finals in the afternoons.
Fukuoka 2001 was an event with both regret and inspiration for me. The event was when Ian Thorpe was in his prime, and Grant Hackett set the world record for the 1,500m.
Lastly, in Fukuoka 2001, Kosuke Kitajima won a medal. I think that Team Japan won a fair number of medals which inspired me to work harder. Fukuoka 2001 drove me to pursue the dream of one day representing Japan on the global stage.
"I was really crushed that I just barely missed the cut as I placed third at the Japanese Swimming Trials. At the time, I was a second-year in high school. I would travel all the way to Fukuoka. Every day, I would train in the mornings and go and see the finals in the afternoons."
Now, 22 years later, Fukuoka is about to host the World Aquatics Championships again. What are you most looking forward to at this event?
I am also part of the team working toward exciting other people and building momentum for Japan’s hosting of the World Aquatics Championships. This is an event that will be extremely impactful for the junior swimmers of Japan and Japanese swimming fans. In the previous event, I was the one who was the recipient of that influence.
I hope that this event will be a catalyst that would lead to a growing strength of the Japanese swimming world.
"I am also part of the team working toward exciting other people and building momentum for Japan’s hosting of the World Aquatics Championships. This is an event that will be extremely impactful for the junior swimmers of Japan and Japanese swimming fans."
Do you have any messages or advice for the youngsters that will be watching these World Aquatics Championships?
My advice for the children is to ideally watch the events onsite, or on TV, as the world’s top swimmers will be gathering here in Fukuoka. I hope that the children will learn how fun swimming is and dream of swimming themselves on the big stage. I would like the World Aquatics Championships to be an event that if you are a swimming fan you would feel the need to come and watch the event live.
It would be best if the Fukuoka World Aquatics Championships becomes an opportunity for the children to fall deeper in love with swimming and a motivation for them to work harder to improve themselves.
"I hope that the children will learn how fun swimming is and dream of swimming themselves on the big stage."