Matsuda takes bronze on historic day for Phelps

Wednesday 13th August, 05:32 PM JST

Japan’s Takeshi Matsuda captured the men’s 200-meter butterfly bronze at the Beijing Games on Wednesday, while defending Olympic champion Kosuke Kitajima fired his rivals a warning shot by coasting into the men’s 200-meter breaststroke final. Matsuda clocked a Japanese record of 1 minute, 52.97 seconds but the day belonged to American Michael Phelps, who went down in the annals of sporting history by winning the 10th and 11th Olympic gold medals of his career at the Water Cube.

Phelps smashed the world record in the 200 butterfly in 1:52.03 to claim his fourth straight victory in Beijing and become the first Olympian to win 10 career gold medals. The ‘‘Baltimore Bullet’’ then continued his gold rush by helping the United States win the men’s 4x200-meter relay in yet another world record of 6:58.56 and now has two more golds than a group of former Olympic greats that include compatriots Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz.

9 Comments

smithinjapan at 06:28 PM JST - 13th August

Good on this guy. He had no chance against Phelps and the other dude, but kudos for holding his own. What's more, in the interview after, while the commentators continued their subjective asinine comments, Matsuda's comments were excellent, from the heart, and full of nothing but genuine happiness at what he had done. There was no bragging, no whining (again, unlike the commentators during these games), and he said he was honoured to be able to see and race alongside Phelps. Good job! A bronze is nothing to be shy about.
TheCode at 06:32 PM JST - 13th August

I'm really glad Matsuda could do well. He really seems like a classy, down-to-earth guy too. He still trains in the makeshift swimming pool back in his hometown (made within an old greenhouse) and with the same coach. He even shunned the high-powered and rich college training programs so that he could stay close to home. It was even good to see that he was the most animated of the three medalists as they were shown approaching the podium. To him, winning the bronze (any medal in fact) was a tremendous accomplishment for him; something he could show his coach for everything she has done for him.
rajakumar at 06:54 PM JST - 13th August

Way to go Takeshi Matsuda and coach.
formergaijinIN at 09:16 PM JST - 13th August

Matsuda is a rising sun in a sinking country. Congrats Matsuda!
browny1 at 10:33 PM JST - 13th August

Agree with all of the above. Matsuda is a true olympian.

Just a little disappointed that the local networks here couldn't have focussed even a little on the historical moment of the day. That being, Phelps, irregardless of whether you like him or not, becoming the greatest winner of all times and he's not done yet. Doubtful if anyone will ever surpass his feats. To miss such a blazing opportunity by the japanese media in general reflects on their self serving interests.
TheCode at 11:18 PM JST - 13th August

True, all networks should have focused more on Phelp's achievements. However, I did see about ten minutes focused on it on Fuji Television. They showed snippets of Carl Lewis, and all nine gold medals he won. The significance of it of course, is that he held the record before, and now Phelps has broken that. They also showed some tongue-in-cheek comments by his own teammates. One where Aaron Piersol (a true Olympian in his own right) says that Phelp's is a great Olympian, but still just another part of the American team. Makes me think that yes, his own teammates respect his achievements, but are getting tired of all the attention being paid to only him, and not the rest of the American team.
usaexpat at 11:28 PM JST - 13th August

I watched this race and was cheering for Matsuda as I figured Phelps had it in the bag. Congrats on the bronze in a very tough field.
flammenwerfer at 11:34 PM JST - 13th August

Lots of records went in this race. The World, Olympic and Americas record, the European record (to Cseh) the ASIAN and Japan Record to Matsuda and the Oceania record to Burmester of NZ in 4th equal. Burmester too like Matsuda would have truly cherished a bronze medal in such a race. The other 4th equal guy was Chinese, so its a good chance that was a Chinese record too. It really was a blistering race and the fact that Phelps won by over half a second in quite outstanding. Cseh must be ruing his luck, to be around in he time of Phelps, if not for Phelps then he would have 2 golds. He now knows how Frankie Fredericks the 200m sprinter who came second to the great Michael Johnson felt. Pretty incredible race really.
Wolfpack at 11:49 PM JST - 13th August

Matsuda did an outstanding job in this race given the very high caliber of talent overall. Phelps is the story of the games of course. However, the Japanese have performed pretty well overall given the fact that they don't have the same swimming tradition as the US and Australia. Kitajima was awesome in his race and most of the event finals have at least one Japanese swimmer.