Scotch College

Matt's Olympic medals

On Monday 18 September 2000 Matt Welsh won the first Olympic one hundred metre backstroke medal in Australia since the 1960 Rome Games.

Only six years since leaving the Scotch Swimming and Diving Team Matt has stormed through the ranks, racing at various state, national, and World Cup Meets, the Pan Pac Swimming Championships, and finally the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

From swimming butterfly at school meets, Matt switched strokes to backstroke, after missing selection in the butterfly events for the 1996 Olympics, identifying backstroke as being a weak link in Australian swimming. Matt has stormed into the swimming ranks from swimming a 1:09.75 in the 100 backstroke event at a school swim meet in 1994 to winning the silver medal in the same event at a time of 54.07 in the Sydney Olympics, while decreasing his Australian record by 0.07 seconds. What makes his improvement even better, was his school time was in a short course pool which is usually 1.5 seconds faster compared to a long course pool.

Matt had a natural ability originally with his butterfly kick. His ability was used for the Scotch Team's entertainment at the 1993 Bendigo All Schools, when Matt would dive in for the 100 metres butterfly final and disappear under the sun's reflection on the pool surface. Everybody would surface quickly and frantically swim, except for Matt who was still under the water. The poor Mentone Grammar coach, who the Scotch Team had 'set up' before Matt's swim, stood up concerned something horrible had happened to Matt. Unfortunately for him Matt burst through the surface ten feet in front of everybody else, to the Scotch Team's roar of excitement.

This natural ability to produce speed from his butterfly kick was used when Matt switched to backstroke later with Scotch's consultant coach Ian Pope. Ian has been with the Scotch Team since 1990 and had moulded Matt's backstroke so Matt could swim high in the water producing a more streamlined body position and therefore faster times.

With these skills, Matt's times began to fall. He first made an impression at the World Swimming Championships in 1998, but his career did not kick on until the following months. On his return to the Australian Team in 1999 for the Pan Pac Championships, Matt finished second behind Lenny Krazelberg, who held the world record. Matt threw down the gauntlet over the 1999/2000 short course season by breaking the fifty metre and one hundred metre world records, signalling his intentions for the Sydney Olympics. In a shock result, Matt defeated Krayzelberg twice at the Hobart World Cup in January 2000, and set a short course record for the fifty metre backstroke.

Ian Pope says 'Matt's biggest strength is his ability to perform when it counts. The bigger the event, the better he gets up. He's a good mental swimmer.'

The heats and semi finals for the one hundred metre backstroke were interesting to watch as both Matt and Lenny Krazelberg were not fully prepared for the final showdown. Matt hadn't 'shaved down' and Lenny wore his small speedos as compared to the skin tight swim shorts. The final was going to be the one to watch. With a head on view of the start the two swimmers propelled themselves up and over the water launching immediately into the fast butterfly kicks under water. On surfacing the race was on. At the turn Matt was slightly back, but edged ahead of Lenny to a point that Matt may have taken a small lead, with twenty-five metres to go. Lenny crept forward to finish with an Olympic record of 53.72 seconds to win the gold medal, and Matt the silver medal.

Matt later competed in the two hundred metres backstroke and in the backstroke leg of the men's 4x100 metres Medley Relay. Again, over the one hundred metres, Matt went stroke for stroke with Lenny placing the Australian team in a favourable position to win the gold. As the course of the relay continued Australia dropped back to the silver medal position touching second behind the USA team which set a new world record. The Australian team established a new Australian record and gained a silver medal.

The Commonwealth record was smashed again by Matt to win Australia's first men's two hundred metre backstroke medal at an Olympics in twenty years. Matt clocked 1:57.59 seconds to finish third behind Americans Lenny Krayzelberg and Aaron Peirsol, slashing almost a second off his previous record set in the semi-finals.

Matt mentioned 'I was surprised, really. I couldn't believe I got that close to winning. Those last two laps really hurt.'

'I saw (Matt) on the third turn and I didn't expect him to be there,' said Peirsol.

All up Matt won two silver medals and a bronze medal during the Sydney Olympics. Considering his improvements since he left Scotch teaches us the potential that each individual has to succeed.