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Women Athletes Business Network brings you interviews with female athletes whose career moves make them role models and with people who provide them with career support.
I interviewed Kaori Matsumoto, a.k.a. The Beast, who has pivoted from an Olympic gold medalist to an ice-cream creator after marrying and becoming a mother.
Kaori Matsumoto was known by her nickname of The Beast when she was active as a top athlete. Armed with excellent technical skills and fighting spirit befitting a Japanese judoka, she took part in two Olympics and won gold at the London 2012 Olympics.
Since retiring from competitive judo in 2019, in addition to parenting, she is involved in developing ice-creams that meet various health needs at Darcy's, the ice-cream seller affiliated with her corporate sponsor.
Ms. Matsumoto is a gold medalist and part of a family unit and is enjoying a fulfilling second career. I asked her about the path she has taken.
Kaori Matsumoto
As a judoka she has won a gold and a bronze at the Olympics. She won the world championships twice and placed third once. Her nickname was The Beast. She married in 2016 and is currently raising a daughter and a son while also being involved in creating guilt-free ice-creams.
Achievements (all in the women’s 57 kg division)
2010
・Gold medal, World Judo Championships in Tokyo
2011
・Bronze medal, World Judo Championships in Paris
2012
・Gold medal, London 2012 Olympics
2015
・Gold medal, World Judo Championships in Astana
2016
・Bronze medal, Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics
The ice-cream she loves is now her work
- It caused a massive stir when you, a gold medalist, announced in 2019 that you were going to retire and become an ice-cream seller. What was it that sparked your desire to be involved in ice-cream development?
Matsumoto: What I’m working on now is “guilt-free” ice-cream. People all over the world are becoming increasingly health-conscious, and I wanted to create ice-creams that vegans and people with allergies need have no concerns about eating. It was winning my London 2012 Olympics gold medal that sparked the idea.
- What’s the connection between the Olympics and ice-cream?
Matsumoto: When I won the gold medal in London, a reporter asked me what I wanted to do at that moment. I answered, “I want to eat an ice-cream parfait,” and do you know what happened then?
- I can’t even begin to imagine.
Matsumoto: When I got back to Japan, people were serving me parfaits everywhere I went. Some days I’d be given five or more. It would’ve been rude not to eat what they had been kind enough to serve me, so I kept eating them, but it affected my physical condition. I realized what huge impact food has on our lives.
- Even so, people usually expect a judo gold medalist to become a coach, don’t they? Did you never think about taking that path?
Matsumoto: Not even for a moment. I liked sweet things when I was in elementary school and originally wanted to run a cake shop, but as time passed, my main goal in life became to compete in the Olympics. Competing and winning bring a sense of accomplishment. But even so, I would sometimes ask myself what I would be without judo, and that thought would make me feel uneasy. I didn't consider becoming a coach because, although I like judo, I didn't love it. I wanted to continue as an athlete but couldn’t imagine myself as a coach.
- You got married in 2016, gave birth to your daughter in 2017, and were aiming for your third Olympics, weren’t you?
Matsumoto: After winning the bronze at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics, I aimed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. If it hadn’t been Tokyo, I think I’d probably have retired after Rio de Janeiro. I did think I would aim to compete in the Olympics as a mother, but after I gave birth, I discovered how hard it was to keep up my training while parenting.
- Are you saying that it was difficult to be a mother and a judoka?
Matsumoto: I received support from the Japanese Olympic Committee’s Athletes’ Committee, but when it came to training, some dojos were OK about me bringing my daughter with me, and some were not “because the other athletes were unable to concentrate.”
- Perhaps, in that regard, facilities in Japan are not as advanced as they are overseas.
Matsumoto: Judo emphasizes etiquette, and there is a strong hierarchy, so it may well be hard to change the established customs. In addition to the challenges posed by that environment, I need to build myself up technically and psychologically to become The Beast. A month before a contest, I switch to battle mode; in other words, I really psyche myself up. But I can’t make myself into The Beast if I have to stop practicing and go and pick up my daughter, even in the final run-up to a contest. So I gave up transforming myself into The Beast. I decided only to transform myself as much as I could.
The start of her second career
- As a result of such complications, you retired in 2019 and embarked on a second career.
Matsumoto: The impetus came from realizing that my children are more important to me than judo. My life still centers around my kids now that I’m creating ice-creams. When I decided to retire, I consulted the president of Beneseed, my corporate sponsor, about the kind of work I wanted to do after retiring from judo. When I learned that there was an ice-cream business within the company, I thought, “This has to be it!” because I love ice-cream. (She laughs.) I made the announcement at a press conference.
-Weren’t you anxious about pivoting to a second career?
Matsumoto: To be honest, I was more anxious when I was doing judo. Before I won the London 2012 Olympics gold, I would think, “If I were to quit judo now, what would I be left with?” and it made me incredibly anxious because all the time you’ve spent on the buildup becomes pointless if you don’t get the results.
- I certainly don’t think it becomes pointless.
Matsumoto: I don’t think it’s just me. I think many athletes feel that anxiety. I felt that I couldn’t quit without leaving some legacy, and luckily, I won the gold medal, which put me in a position where I can talk about how athletes feel. However, some people are anxious about their future, even if they are gold medalists. And some want to continue competing but are forced to give up due to the situation of their company.
- Given that, do you think that education about a second career is important?
Matsumoto: It’s too late to start thinking about it when you retire. I think it’s essential to provide athletes with information about working other than competing in contests, to consider other options.
Involvement in product development
- Do you enjoy your work, being involved in product development?
Matsumoto: It’s tremendous fun. (She laughs.)
- You’re very insistent on the healthiness of the ice-cream, perhaps as a result of eating too many parfaits?
Matsumoto: The way I see it, I’m using my body as a guinea pig. I can feel the process of fat building up when I eat. When I eat very fatty food, my body starts to itch painfully, and I can feel the fat being formed.
- Really?
Matsumoto: Don’t you feel it? Alcohol causes physical changes when we drink, doesn’t it? I think it’s a similar kind of sensation. And that’s why I want to create ice-creams that are good for the body. So we’re very strict about the ingredients, and I taste the ice-cream to test it and verify which ingredients create which flavors and their effect on the human body. As a result, Darcy’s made gluten-free ice-cream without using dairy products, white sugar, or trans fats.
- Do you draw upon your experiences as a mother in any way during the development process?
Matsumoto: Breast milk is very sensitive to the mother’s diet, isn’t it? Generally speaking, the ice-creams on the market are very sugary, which impacts breast milk. So we make low-sugar ice-cream that is safe for nursing mothers to eat as well.
- What’s your management approach to running the shop?
Matsumoto: I want to create a positive working environment since our staff members are all on their own path through life. Everyone’s different, and there are diverse work styles. People shine when they’re in the right role. I enjoy watching people evolve like that, you know.
- This may be a bit of a strange question, but are there any ways in which continuing with judo for so many years has helped you to create ice-creams?
Matsumoto: It’s not that strange a question. As far as I’m concerned, judo and ice-cream are similar. You weigh up your opponent and refine tactics to use against them. You do research, and you train, then you go out there and get a result. That process doesn’t change.
- I expect you’re very busy at home parenting. Do you have time to refine ideas?
Matsumoto: I run for about 40 minutes on weekday mornings, which helps me get my thoughts in order. I go over the process we used to create a prototype the day before, and ideas emerge for what to do next. For me, my morning run is a time when ideas seem to well up.
- That’s a great habit to have, isn’t it? The COVID-19 crisis that began in 2020 is causing tremendous damage to the food industry worldwide. I don’t think that the ice-cream industry is an exception to that. What kind of impact is it having?
Matsumoto: The shop in Tokyo has had to shut down temporarily, and that’s still the situation in 2021. However, looking from a positive angle, it meant that we could establish excellent mail order sales routes.
- That is a great shift in perspective.
Matsumoto: We have plenty of time for research while we’re unable to open the shop. We’re trying things out, and I hope to greet our customers with some new products when the shop reopens. At the moment, we’re working on brown rice ice-cream, but it’s proving really difficult. There’s so much I still need to learn.
- What are your dreams for the future?
Matsumoto: In the future, I’d like to connect the ice-cream business with fellow judokas. I kept a certain distance from my rivals while I was still competing because we’re all so focused on who wins and who loses, but we’ve got much closer since I retired. When an international tournament was held in Tokyo in 2019, athletes I’d competed with from France and Mongolia came to the shop especially to see me.
- I guess that’s a kind of friendship which can only be shared by people who have competed together in the global arena, isn’t it?
Matsumoto: In the future, I’ll run the ice-cream business with friends living abroad. If it can provide capital for dojos overseas, we’ll be able to provide support for judo as well. Wouldn’t you say that would be a splendid example of killing two birds with one stone?
- I can really see the significance of linking judo and ice-cream.
Matsumoto: I want to study English as well, and there are just so many things I want to do. As a gold medalist, I want to do the best I can to let people know about the way my life is now.
Interviewer: Jun Ikushima (sports journalist)
* Job titles and affiliations are those at the time of the interview.
Summary
There are not many role models in Japan for female athletes when it comes to building a second career. Sharing the story of how gold medalist Kaori Matsumoto is challenging herself in a new field will help other female athletes to smash through the barriers and seize opportunities for their future.