In addition to these individual events, he won the 4 × 100 m team medley silver in 1968 and 1972, and a bronze medal for the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay in 1972.

He retired from swimming in 1976, and in May 1978 married Kornelia Ender, a fellow East German Olympic swimmer.

However, Matthes denied any involvement in doping, claiming that his swimming club was too small to be part of the government system.

He was the first swimmer to successfully defend both Olympic backstroke titles, and he also won medals in international competition in freestyle and butterfly.

Some say that only a slow reaction to the gun kept Roland from giving Mark Spitz the race of his life in the 1972 Olympic 100-meter butterfly final in Munich.