Reported by Spencer Penland.
After one semester at Georgia, South Africa’s Matt Sates, who owns a trio of World Junior Records, has decided to end his very brief NCAA career. This morning, Sates turned pro, signing with the Newton Agency, and will be returning to his hometown of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa to train. Sates had only arrived at the University of Georgia in the U.S. in January, spending roughly 3 months with the Bulldogs before making this decision.
In Pietermaritzburg, Sates will be reuniting with his longtime mentor, Wayde Riddin, who previously served as South Africa’s head coach from 1999-2000. According to a report by Sunday Times, an independent outlet in South Africa, Sates want to focus on Long Course swimming, citing that basically all his recent success has come in either Short Course Meters or yards racing. He holds the World Junior Records in the SCM 200 free, 400 free, and 200 IM.
Sates just concluded the South African Championships in Gqeberha, where he won titles in the 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, and 200 IM. He’s qualified for both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games this summer in both the 200 free and 200 IM.
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“even making 5 million dollars is nothing over a lifetime”
Average American salary in 2019 was ~51k…even with frugal living and heavy investing, that’s not going to hit 5 million in a normal working lifetime…I’m thinking your definition of reality is very different that most people’s…
Was probably still a net positive for Georgia with a win in the 500, I think it is short sited to think it was not.
NCAA? Completed it
Classes were too tough
I wonder when was the last time he went to a class at UGA? He came to UGA a week late in the semester and then had off a week for conference, a week for NCAAs, and then goes straight to SA for their Trials.
I was not from South Africa and don’t know his family situation there, so hard for me to say how he was raised and how much importance they place on education. I do not think every elite international is better off coming to USA to go to ncaa to train and go to school. I see many more individual medals won by foreigners who stayed home and trained and went school.
Good luck… Read more »
Damn he has big shoulders
Might be the strangest NCAA career of all time. Can anyone think of one that might have been comparable?
Gary Hall Jr
Can you elaborate on this?
Not too long ago there was a high profile female that transferred at least two times, although I can’t remember her name. Swimming at 3 schools is pretty odd.
Cierra Runge. Started at Cal, moved to Wisconsin, and ended at Arizona St.
I don’t blame Sates and Noe Ponti at all for making the decisions they made.
If there is a culprit in creating this type of situation it’s the NCAA for moving up the recruiting calendar forcing teams to recruit much younger swimmers and much younger swimmers to commit.
When both Sates and Ponti committed swimming in college was a great opportunity for them, but when the time came for them to show up they had already developed a ton and reached a level where college swimming was limiting big financial opportunities via pro swimming or sponsorship in their home countries (NIL is much more difficult for foreign athletes).
Of course you will always have your Andrei Minakov’s that… Read more »
Pretty sure Minakov is not at all regretting his decision to go to Stanford at the minute
That shouldn’t be your takeaway from what I said. I said that Minakov was already at that level – a world championship medalist and one of the world’s best swimmers when he made the decision.
He already had all the opportunities and avenues to make money swimming that Sates and Ponti did not yet have at the time of their commitment. So it makes perfect sense that he would be the one to not regret his decision which is what I attempted to illustrate with the comment.
Ummm, I think Tommy is talking about not having to be in Russia right now.
He is, but Minakov’s situation is a very special circumstance. The point still stands. Minakov was an elite swimmer who chose to swim at Stanford when he could have had lucrative sponsorships. Ofcourse, he does not regret his decision right now.
Bad take on Ponti. Bronze medal changed his life and he said as much on the podcast. Beat Minakov by 0.04 to become a national hero feted across Switzerland. That was less than a month before going to Raleigh. So, he should have waited until after the Olympics to commit? Situation was totally different than Americans 15-16 years old committing as his peers were when they committed to State two years in advance, while he was 19 already and just over a year out.
His development from when they started recruiting him to when he came to campus is what ultimately had him go home. That’s the only point I’m making.
Quick summary of the video: he is a chad.
No, he’s a South African