International Highlights: 28 FINA/World Aquatics WORLD RECORDS (12 Long Course, 16 Short Course); 85 WORLD TOP TEN Rankings in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place over 27 years in freestyle & butterfly (Long Course: 21 #1, 13 #2, 9 #3 & Short Course: 24 #1, 12 #2, 6 #3); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (2002, 2006, 2008, & 2023, 2 gold & 3 silver); WORLD POINTS: 945; Competed in six (6) AGE GROUPS (60-64 through 85-89). (Statistics as of December 31, 2023.)
Hiroshi Matsumoto is a Masters swimmer from Minami Alps in the Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, located about 100 miles from Tokyo. He began swimming as a child in a local lake and immediately loved it. He swam through his school years and even recreationally as an adult. At age 59, Matsumoto made his Masters Swimming debut. Once he was in his 60s, he started setting records. However, in 2002, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had to have his prostate gland removed. A week after his surgery, Matsumoto went swimming. “I feel alive when I swim!” he said.
Matsumoto has broken 28 FINA Masters World Records and has accumulated 945 World Points. He has competed in six different Masters age groups beginning with the 60-64 age group and is currently swimming in the 85-89 age group, He has been in the World Top Ten 85 times and swims the freestyle and butterfly. In World Rankings, Hiroshi has a combined total of 45 Number 1, 25 Number 2, and 15 Number 3 rankings.
In 2012, he was diagnosed with squamous-cell skin cancer, or Bowen’s disease, which develops in the shallow layer of the skin, but Matsumoto resumed swimming soon after the surgery. Swimming helped his rehabilitation, he said.
Matsumoto has competed in four editions of the FINA/World Aquatics World Championships. He has a total of five medals. He won two gold medals in the 50-meter butterfly, the first in 2002 in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the 65-59 age group, and the second in 2008 in Perth, Australia, when he competed in the 70-74 age group.
Matsumoto also has three silver Masters World Championships medals. The first one he won in 2006 in Stanford in the 50 fly, and the last two, competing most recently in his home country in Fukuoka in 2023, where he swam in the 85-89 age group in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle.
