When you think of a typical Grade 9 student, you probably aren’t thinking of someone like Matthew Goller. While most 15-year-olds are studying for next week’s Maths test or wondering what subjects to take, Matthew is doing this and spending hours in the pool. With his sights set on achieving the highest accolades in the sport, Matthew has had to find a way to balance his athletic ambition with his academic expectations.
Though Matthew could swim before he could walk, the path to professional swimming has not been a dream from the start. When he was younger, Matthew hated his learn to swim classes. However, this all changed when he won a freestyle race in a school gala in Grade 1 and begged his parents to register him for more races. The passion for the sport found its roots in the depths of a 6-year-old’s heart in the shallow end of a pool. As a fifteen-year-old, when asked if his goal is the Olympics, his casual reply of, “Everyone’s goal is the Olympics,” is a testament to his humble approach.
Now Matthew’s days include a full school day with an early morning and afterschool swim, as well as land training in the gym on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. While he is required to train on some weekends, Matthew believes it’s important to “not be a robot,” which is why, when he’s not in the pool, you can find him playing musical instruments, hanging out with his friends, or resting.
To help him in his anti-robot approach, Matthew has partnered with his coach, Mark Randall, who believes in his swimming potential as much as he does in maintaining a healthy sport-life balance. By having honest conversations and tracking his response to training, they make sure he’s pushing himself hard enough without going over the edge.
While Matthew makes it look easy, his schedule and training is no walk in the park. Swimming is not a highly-esteemed sport in South Africa, despite the numerous gold medals it has brought home, and Matthew faces several obstacles that are out of his control. South Africa has a shortage of pools which means there is a decline in racing opportunities. The pool where he trains is outdoors and maintaining the heating is a challenge in the cold winter months. Furthermore, his swimming journey is also completely self-funded as, at his level, there are no sponsorships or funding schemes for the sport. From the outside, these may seem like minor issues to push through but, not being able to race or train optimally or have the same financial backing as his international competitors is often frustrating.
Despite all of this, Matthew is focused on his end-goal to participate in the Olympics, and he is on track. In April he competed at the Africa Aquatics Junior Swimming Championship in Egypt, winning three golds and a bronze. In August he will be traveling to Romania to compete as part of the South African Team at World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships. At these meets he swims against international athletes most of whom are a few years years older than him.
Matthew is very serious about not letting the sport define him for the rest of his life. He wants to grow in his sport while also growing as a person – becoming “Matthew who swam, not Matthew the swimmer”. Although he would love to purse a career in a Maths or Engineering direction one day, he knows he’ll never leave the sport completely. He plans to use any success he achieves in his career as a platform to help grow the sport in South Africa.
So, how does Matthew do it all?
Matthew attended a brick-and-mortar school, but in 2024 he realised that he needed a plan to keep up with all of his expectations and ambitions. He is enrolled with Hatfield Christian Online School as part of a hybrid model. He has in this way managed to create a schedule that focuses on his most important subjects. Matthew is able to stick to a good academic routine that empowers him to achieve his academic goals, while freeing up time for training – and (maybe most importantly) which allows him to just be a teenager.
He tries hard to focus during his allocated “schoolwork hours” so that he doesn’t miss out on any content and uses all the free time he has available to him during the day to study and do his homework. At his young age, Matthew is an example of dedication and grit – it’s not a question of how he feels when it comes to his schoolwork, it’s the simple action of just doing it.
Within Hatfield Online School, Matthew learns alongside students with different learning capabilities and individual schedules. He is learning according to what he needs, adapting the curriculum for his reality and future aspirations. Matthew is showing his “brick-and-mortar” friends how Hatfield Online School breaks the mould of traditional education by providing world-class, individualised education.
Matthew is well on his way to achieving his sporting and academic goals with the never-ending support of his family. Big shoutout to Mom and Dad for all the driving and his twin sisters who cheer for him while braiding each other’s hair in the stands of the pool. This, coupled with the educational flexibility of Hatfield Online School, has put him on the path paved with success.
Watch out world – Matthew Goller is coming your way!
With excellent SACE-registered subject specialists as teachers, our students have the world at their fingertips. Our staff are just one email or video call away, and a student can get one-on-one tuition from their teachers should they not grasp a concept.
We follow an asynchronous teaching model, which means your child can conduct their education any place, at any pace and any time. You structure your own timetable according to your unique circumstances - for example you can fit in a rigorous sports training schedule, and adjust school times around that.
Hatfield Online School is the perfect solution for students wishing to take an extra subject that their school does not provide teaching support in. We also assist grade 12s wishing to improve their IEB marks through matric re-writes or full portfolio upgrades.
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