What to Know About Van Mathias, Ops Director Who Won 5 Medals at Pan Pacs Swimming Championships

It has been a winding career path for United States swimmer Van Mathias to say the least, but he looked like someone who has officially arrived as one of the leaders of the American team during the Pan Pacific Championships.

Beth Harris of the Associated Press detailed Mathias' journey that saw him win five medals during his U.S. senior national team debut.

Perhaps most notably, he is currently the director of operations for Indiana University's swimming and diving program. Indiana is his alma mater after swimming five years for the Hoosiers, but he stopped swimming professionally after college and when he didn't make the American team in butterfly for the Tokyo Olympics.

The 25-year-old worked various jobs and joined his mother and uncle, who are both former competitive lifters, in weightlifting before he was offered the operations director position with the Hoosiers.

"Even just last week I was in the office pushing papers," Mathias said. "Got a busy fall coming up for IU athletics. I haven't cracked my laptop in a couple days, so probably falling behind."

Being around the sport again made him reconsider his decision to stop competing, and he started to turn heads with his breaststroke performance. 

"Maybe to be this good at breaststroke, you got to not swim it for six years," he said.

Something worked because he swam the breaststroke leg in the United States' world-record-setting performance in the 4 x 100 mixed medley relay on Saturday night.

It was one of three gold medals and two silver medals he captured at the event.

"It's taught me a lot of lessons, given me a lot of experience and wisdom," Mathias said of his path. "When you swim your best, you're pretty relaxed."

Given his performance Saturday, it's difficult not to think about that path eventually leading to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. It would give him an opportunity to compete in front of his home-country fans and be quite the achievement for someone who looked like he was done swimming at a professional level after failing to make a previous Olympic team.

Five medals during a U.S. senior national team debut is a head-turning starting point for someone who could find himself on the podium in two years.

Of course, eventual Olympic glory might also mean Indiana would have to start looking for a new director of operations.