It's taken time but Katsuhiro Matsumoto, the silver medalist in the men's 200-meter freestyle at last year's world championships, has accepted the fact that despite the huge progress he's made over the winter, 2020 isn't going to be his year after all.
Matsumoto, who holds the national record in the event with a time of 1 minute, 45.22 seconds, felt he was within striking distance of winning an Olympic gold medal this summer until learning on March 23 that the Tokyo Olympics would be postponed. Two days later, the national championships — Japan's Olympic qualifying tournament — was canceled.
"After all I had done this just couldn't happen," the disappointed 23-year-old swimmer said.