Matan Roditi

Early life

Roditi is from Herzliya, Israel. His father Shmuel (Shmulik) Roditi was a soccer player who competed as a defender for the Ramat Gan team Hakoah Maccabi Amidar Ramat Gan which won two state cups and the championship title in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His mother Mazal works in a bank. When Matan was born, his mother was 50 years old and his father was 54 years old. He majored in computers.

Career

As a four-year-old boy, Roditi was afraid to put his head in the water. Starting at age 10, he won medals in the Israeli championships. At the age of 12, he started rowing, specializing in the 400 meters. His coach for four years was Hanan Gilad who ultimately retired, and is now Amir Ofer. He also won the gold medal in the 2019 South African Open Water Championships 10k in Jeffrey’s Bay, with a time of 1:52.40.24. In 2019 he also set a new Israeli record in the long course 1500 metre by swimming it in 15:17.9, cutting .33 seconds off the old Israeli record set in 2002. At the end of the year he was the Israeli champion in the 800 free, the 1500 free, and the 10 km open water swim. Roditi also came in fourth in the 2020 Australian Open Water Swimming Championships 10 km race in South Australia's Brighton Beach with a time of 1:55:49.96—within a half-second of Australian bronze medalist Nicholas Sloman (as the gold medal winner Dutch swimmer Ferry Weertman had a time of 1:55:45.24).

In March 2021, Roditi won the gold medal in the Men's 400 metre freestyle in the Wingate League for Adults in Israel in 3:59.07.

2020 Olympic Games Roditi represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 10km swim marathon in August 2021, in Tokyo Bay, in warm-water, warm-weather conditions (the temperature was 81 degrees Fahrenheit (27.2 Celsius) with 80% humidity, making it feel like close to 90 degrees). The 22-year-old finished in 4th place with a time of 1:49:24.9, 23.8 seconds behind bronze medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri (1:49:01.1) of Italy, silver medalist Kristóf Rasovszky (1:48:59.0) of Hungary, and gold medalist Florian Wellbrock (1:48:33.7) of Germany. At the 2022 Israeli Summer Championships in Netanya he set a national record while winning the gold medal in the men’s 1500m free with a time of 15:13.54. At the 2022 Israeli Short Course Championships in Netanya, he won a gold medal while setting a national record in the men’s 800m free with a time of 7:49.29.

In 2023 he won gold medals in the Men's 400 metre freestyle in the Israel Swimming Cup in 3:58.15, and in the Men's 800 metre freestyle in the Israel Adults Championships - Criteria Competition in 7:57.16.

In February 2024 at the World Open Water Championships, Roditi came in 10th out of 79 swimmers in the 10 km race with a time of 1:48:31.7 (as the gold medal winner Hungary’s Kristóf Rasovszky had a time of 1:48:21.2) at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in choppy conditions in the old Doha Port in Qatar, as the water temperature at the beginning of the race was 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). With that finish, which he accomplished despite having broken his ankle two and a half months prior during a training camp, he qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Career highlights