From Coaching Staff to American Record Holder

After graduating from the University of Indiana in 2023 Van Mathias stopped swimming in competition and became the Director of Operations for the University of Indiana swim team, seemingly retiring from the sport after competing at the D1 level for five years. But then two and a half years after his final NCAA championships Mathias returned to competition in the summer of 2025. During that summer he started posting some long course personal bests in the breaststrokes, then continuing into this season he just kept dropping, and dropping, and DROPPING. Shedding time in his events all the way until he just clocked a NEW American record and is now one of the FASTEST sprint breaststrokers in HISTORY. But how did we get here?