While not a direct scientific topic, Matthews' longevity provides an intriguing case study for sports science, particularly in retrospect. His strict vegetarian diet and abstention from alcohol were unusual for his time and are often cited as contributors to his remarkable physical condition. Modern sports physiology would now analyse such factors, along with genetic predispositions, recovery methods, and training methodologies, to understand sustained elite performance. His career highlights the profound, albeit then unquantified, impact of lifestyle choices on an athlete's ability to defy typical age-related decline, demonstrating an intuitive understanding of bio-optimization decades before it became a formal scientific discipline in sports.