In 2018, Van Mathias, a 17-year-old from Beaverton, Oregon, swam for the U.S. junior national team for the first and what would be only time at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Fiji.
Today, Mathias makes his U.S. senior national team debut at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California (broadcast schedule here).
In the eight years in between, Mathias swam five seasons for Indiana University, retired from competition, became director of operations for the Hoosiers swim and dive program, unretired after two years and transformed from a butterflier and IMer to become the fastest sprint breaststroker in American history.
At these Pan Pacs, Mathias will race for the first time donning a national team swim cap with both an American flag and his last name emblazoned on the side.
He also wore an American flag cap at the 2018 Junior Pan Pacs, but without his last name on it. The names are reserved for senior national teamers.
Van Mathias has arrived.
“You grow up watching swimming, watching all the biggest stars in the sport, and they always have their last name on the cap, especially at the biggest meets, the Olympics, things like that,” he said. “Hopefully it’s going to feel really good on my head.”
Mathias was 41st and 48th in two butterfly events at the Tokyo Olympic Trials and had a best individual NCAA Championships finish of 25th going into his final season in Bloomington in 2022-23.
He converted to the breaststroke before the 2023 Big Ten Championships. Though it clicked — he finished second in the 100-yard breast at NCAAs — he was ready to hang up the cap and goggles.
“For now calling it done, end with a bang,” he told SwimSwam after the 2023 NCAAs, “but, who knows, you might see me later on.”
A year later, Mathias, who had moved back to Oregon and coached a high school team, got a call from his old head coach at Indiana, Ray Looze. Looze suggested Mathias apply for the program’s director of operations vacancy.
Mathias interviewed and got it, so he moved back to Bloomington for the 2024-25 season. He had done little swimming in the previous 18 months. In fact, he barely did any cardio at all.
Instead, he undertook a weightlifting program with the help of his mom, Nancy, and an uncle, both former competitive bodybuilders. Mathias went from 200 pounds when he left IU as a swimmer to 235 when he returned as an employee.
Mathias’ office being about 20 feet from the pool deck, he got curious and splashed around every once in a while. John Long, Jr. and Cory Chitwood, associate head coaches who both swam at the 2012 Olympic Trials, joined him for pool workouts.
“Van would intermittently do something fast, and we’d be like, ‘Hmm, that’s pretty good. You’re really throwing down a fast time for not really training,’” Long said.
Then came the 2025 USA Swimming National Championships in Indianapolis. Mathias trekked up Interstate 69 in his director of ops role to support the IU swimmers.
Mathias, Looze and Long conversed about the state of U.S. men’s breaststroke as they watched the finals. No American cracked the top 10 in the world in the 50m breast, an event that was added to the 2028 Olympic program two months earlier.
“We’re like, ‘Van, I think with the 50s of strokes being added to the Olympics, we could experiment a little bit, do some different training, and I think your 50m breaststroke could be really, really good,’” Long recalled. “Because we saw what some of the other Americans were doing, it just kind of felt like there was an opening for him.”
Two and a half weeks later, Mathias registered his first official swim times in nearly two and a half years. Within two months, he swam the fastest 50m breast by an American for the year (14th-fastest man in the world) and qualified to make his senior international debut at these Pan Pacs.
He has been swifter in 2026, breaking American records in the 50m breast (in April and again in June) and in the 100m breast (in June).
AUSTIN, TEXAS - JANUARY 16: Van Mathias gives an interview after the Men’s 50 Meter Breaststroke final during the USA Swimming Pro Swim Series Austin at Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on January 16, 2026 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images)
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How did this happen? There could be several contributing factors.
Mathias, though he came up as a butterflier and IMer, may have been a breaststroke star in waiting all along given his NCAA runner-up finish in 2023. Maybe the weightlifting during his retirement gave him an optimal base to work off. Maybe it’s perspective, a little older, a little wiser.
“I tell myself that work is hard, swimming is easy,” he said. “I love being a part of something bigger than myself and being able to be there and be a reliable piece for others. This (director of ops) job takes up a big chunk of that. Swimming is kind of my little personal thing that I get for me. I expend a lot of energy being there for others, and swimming is where I can just do it for me.”
Maybe it’s the training. Mathias adopted the less-is-more, high-intensity mentality of Australian Cam McEvoy, who broke the 50m freestyle world record in March at age 31.
A typical sprinter swims between 2,000 to 5,000 yards per practice, Long said. Mathias ranges from about 1,000 yards to 1,500 yards.
Part of the reason for that is necessity. Sometimes he only has time to squeeze in a 45-minute workout due to his job. Mathias keeps his phone nearby just in case.
“There’s been times where I’ve gotten calls and whatnot that have had to pull me out of the water,” he said. “There’s also been times where I’ve been at my desk in my Speedo, still dripping wet, trying to do something on my computer.”
A director of operations for a swim team can be in charge of just about everything — setting up travel to meets, ensuring everyone is fed, coordinating recruit visits, stocking up team gear.
This past March 15, Mathias was woken up at 4 a.m. by a phone call that the team’s flight plans for later that day for the NCAA Women’s Championships in Atlanta were canceled due to heavy lightning.
So Mathias worked the phones all morning. He was able to rebook half the team to fly out of Louisville and the other half, plus support staff, on an eight-hour bus from Bloomington. Mathias rode the bus.
“I felt like I lived a lifetime in that day,” he said.
This week, Mathias is entered in the 50m fly (Wednesday), 100m breast (Thursday), 50m breast (Friday) and 50m freestyle (Saturday). The most famous mustachioed Hoosier swimmer since Mark Spitz doesn’t dwell on medal goals, but would like to record more personal-best times.
Mathias, after reflecting on the 2018 Junior Pan Pacs experience, is asked if the Olympics feel within reach.
“I got a lot of people telling me that. I’m trying to ignore it,” he said. “Having a job and all these other things going on in my life, it’s easy to get wrapped up in that stuff. But I think if I can kind of close my world and my perception and just kind of take it day by day, eventually we’ll get there.”
