Van Mathias Hoping to Continue Astonishing Run at Short Course Worlds
Predicting two individual gold medals for Van Mathias at the upcoming Short Course World Championships would hardly qualify as a bold statement, not after the incredible year the 26-year-old has put together in the sprint breaststroke events. But one year ago, no way, not with Mathias only in the early stages of resurrecting his career after a college career at Indiana few would define as transcendent.
Now, though, Mathias is approaching the end of a year in which he has lowered the American records in the 50 and 100-meter breast in long course and short course on multiple occasions each. He collected three gold medals at this summer’s Pan Pacific Championships, including a dominant performance in the 100 breast and two triumphant relay efforts, as well as one silver. Mathias swam as fast as 58.01 in the 100 breast this year, making him the fourth-fastest performer in history, and his 50-meter time of 26.30 made him the sixth-fastest man ever.
Van Mathias — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Most recently, Mathias broke the first world record of his career at the U.S. Short Course World Championship Trials, achieving a time of 55.14 in the short course 100 breast to clip 0.14 from the mark set by Ilya Shymanovich in 2021. He followed that up with a mark of 25.21 in the 50 breast, the second-quickest mark ever behind the 24.95 posted by Emre Sakci five years ago.
Those swims qualified Mathias to race at a global-level competition for the first time, and he will take on a substantial role for the American team next month in Beijing. In addition to the individual events, Mathias should handle the breaststroke leg on three medley relays, the men’s 400, mixed 400 and mixed 200, and he could potentially factor into the U.S. squad for the mixed 200 freestyle relay.
We do not know yet which of Mathias’ major competitors in the breaststroke events will be racing at the 25-meter showcase meet, but none of them have put up any times close to his thus far in 2026 or even in recent years. On the recent World Cup circuit, the fastest time in the 50 breast was 25.67, achieved by China’s Qin Haiyang and South Africa’s Michael Houlie at separate meets. Russia’s Kirill Prigoda won the 100 breast at all three stops, but he never swam under 56.
50-meter races typically have tight margins and chances for surprising results, but Mathias should be the prohibitive favorite in the 100. Not since 2024 has anyone swum within four tenths of his new global mark. Qin owns a best time of 55.47, which he swam on the way to gold at the Budapest World Championships two years ago. He should get plenty of support from the hometown crowd in China, but he has not shown any indication that a return to that speed is likely. In the long course event, Qin did not ever break 58 this year.
Qin is one of three men who own a quicker long course best time than Mathias, and the other two, Adam Peaty and Arno Kamminga, will not compete at Short Course Worlds. The stage is set for Mathias to continue his astonishing season with a global flourish.
