Pan Pacific Championships, Night Two Finals: Van Mathias .01 off AR in 100 Breast
The 100 is Van Mathias’ world, and everyone else is just breaststroking in it. Not bad for an event he maintains wasn’t a priority at the beginning of the year.
Mathias went 58.02 on Thursday night to win gold at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California. He’s within .01 seconds of his American record, set in June.
Mathias owns the top four performances in the world in 2026.
“This wasn’t a priority maybe at the beginning of the year, and it’s kind of turned into one,” Mathias said. “So we’re still figuring out how we can race that well and still be good at the other events. But, I think it’s a good step, and hopefully, I just keep getting better and better.”
Second was Shin Ohashi, the Japanese swimmer who lowered his world junior and Japanese senior records by .13 seconds to 58.54. Sam Williamson got bronze for Australia, his 59.34 edging Josh Matheny by .08 seconds.
Mathias has had a storybook year. In 2023, as a grad student at Indiana, Mathias gave up his usual specialty zone of the 100 fly/200 fly/200 individual medley, despite it leading to nine A finals at the Big Ten Championships and six swims at NCAAs. He shifted to the 50 free as a senior, won a Big Ten title and ended up 11th in the event at NCAAs with limited sprint experience.
After a brief retirement, he’s taken to a streamlined training schedule that has focused on speed over yardage. In 2021, he was 41st in the 200 fly at Olympic Trials and 48th in the 100 fly and didn’t swim at Trials in 2024. But a stellar summer of 2025 launched him onto the team, and he’s taken it from there.
Thursday, the Indiana swimming and diving director of operations was wiling to admit he wanted to be the fourth man to break 58 seconds all-time, but that will have to wait.
“This morning was really easy, and tonight I think I wanted it a little too much,” he said. “I mean, still a great swim, but I think when you swim your best, you’re relaxed. And my mindset was just to go, and I maybe needed to work into it a little more. So I’m happy I got the job done. Good gold for Team USA. That’s all you can ask for.”
Mathias isn’t alone, though. Ohashi has a World Junior Record and a Japanese record, in that swimming nation’s most hallowed of strokes. Oliver Dawson has been on a tear of Canadian super-suited breaststroke records.
He was sixth at night in 59.85, behind Japan’s Yamato Okadome. Okadome hit the same time of 59.50 as American Campbell McKean in winning the B final, with Japan’s Taku Taniguchi also getting under a minute in 59.98 from the consolation final.
As for Mathias, if he knows the secret to this renaissance in his mid-20s in this event in particular, he’s not sharing it. It’s not the most replicable plan out there.
“I don’t know. We’re still figuring it out,” he said. “I think it’s maybe the career path I’ve had. It’s taught me a lot of lessons, given me a lot of experience and wisdom. Maybe to be this good at breaststroke, you got to not swim it for six years, I don’t know.”
