Rin Matsuoka

"#d80001"

- I'll show you a sight you've never seen before!

Rin Matsuoka (松岡 凛 Matsuoka Rin) is one of the main characters of the anime series Free! and the light novel High☆Speed!. He is the freestyle and butterfly swimmer on Samezuka Academy's swim team and a 2nd year high school student at Samezuka Academy. After Seijuro Mikoshiba graduated from Samezuka Academy, Rin became the new captain of the swimming team.

Appearance
Rin is a tall young man with semi-long, brownish red hair. He has red eyes and shark-like teeth. His winter and fall school uniform consists of white trousers, a white buttoned up jacket with a black t-shirt underneath it and black shoes. In the spring his uniform consists of a black polo shirt with a pink collar, as well as a pair of white pants and black shoes. His school bag is a red messenger bag with the word "shark" printed on the outside.

While swimming, he wears black jammers which have red markings trailing along the length of his outer legs and thighs, as well as a pair of dark blue tinted goggles.

Personality
When he was young, Rin showed a lot of passion and competitiveness for swimming, as well as an interest in teamwork. After years passed, his ideals about swimming drastically changed. He does not care that much about the trophy they won during their elementary days.

As the Iwatobi High School Swim Club continues to practice and have fun together, Rin often times catches glimpses of them during their practices and is notably morose when he sees how happy they are together while he stands there alone. The teenager aspires to make his father's dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer come true and has detached himself from everyone while working toward that particular goal. At times, Rin displays a softer side, as he is shown to still harbor concern for his friends' well-being and he acts like a mentor toward his younger sister Gou and teammate Nitori. Rin is conflicted emotionally, but his pride as a swimmer is used to mask his insecurities.

History
Rin's father died when Rin was very young; his father was a swimmer who had dreamed of going to the Olympics but had to give-up his goal and become a fisherman. Due to a tragic incident (a storm), his father drowned three kilometers off the coast along with the rest of his crew. Rin stated that he has very few memories of his father and cannot even recall what his father looked like, as his father would be gone for days while out fishing. Rin decided to try and become an Olympic swimmer because he believes that by following this path, he will be able to see his father's face. Rin puts his swimming goggles on in the same way his father did (by pulling the strap back and letting it snap back onto the back of his swim cap). Rin joined the Iwatobi Swimming Club prior to leaving for Australia because that was his father's old club, where his father and his teammates had won the relay. Rin wanted to make a team and win the relay to emulate his father as he started down the path of becoming an Olympic swimmer.

In elementary school, Rin was in the same swimming team along with Haruka, Makoto and Nagisa. After they won a tournament, Rin then went abroad to Australia to attend a swimming school.

Trivia

 * Like all swimmers associated with the Iwatobi High School Swimming Club, Rin has a female name.
 * Rin is the type of person who cannot sleep without his pillow.
 * Haruka stated that Rin accidentally called his coach mom during elementary school.
 * Gou has admitted that Rin shaves his body hair to reduce water resistance.
 * Rin likes eating meat and spicy foods while he doesn't particularly like sweet foods.
 * Rin's best subjects are English and Math, while he's bad at Literature and Old Japanese.
 * Rin likes sports that he's good at.
 * Rin's best stroke is the butterfly, but his obsession with beating Haruka, who only swims freestyle, leads him to focusing on that stroke and whatever distance Haruka is swimming in competition only.

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