Lindsay Mathys, state champion at DGN for the past two years, is taking her swimming career a step further: the Olympic trials. The junior plans to compete in the 15 session, 8 day long event that will take place in Omaha, Nebraska from June 26 to July 3 next summer.

Mathys takes an unusual approach to training for these trials; she swims with the boys.
“Training with the guys, there’s a lot less drama, and they’re very all in,” said Mathys, “I always have guys in front of me, guys behind me, pushing me to get faster and I’m always pushing them to get faster.”

Mathys said swimming with the boys is more work, but it is easier to work together to complete the set. With other girls, there is a drastic difference in speed levels, so it is harder to work as a unit. However Mathys said the upside to training with girls is getting the chance to individualize the set and work on your technique.

Accoring to Mathys, there are a lot of ups and downs to training with the guys, but thry help her improve and she and the guys are all in this together.

“We’re all great, and when we have an amazing set, basically we’re flying,” Mathys said.
“We butt heads and we goof off but we push each other through our training to no end; at the end of the day they’re my family and I know they’ll always have my back no matter what happens,” Mathys said.

Two time recipient of the YMCA Long Course National Coach of the Year Bob Strube coaches Mathys at the Wheaton Swim Club. She swims around 5000-7000 yards a day, which is around three and a half miles, and trains seven days a week, not including weight training or physical therapy.

“We train Lindsay with the boys because we like to push our swimmers and we have lanes that are set up by times and she is just in the faster group,” Strube commented, “There have been times in the past where the girls were the top trainers in our program.”

Mathys has been swimming competitively since the age of eight, and has been training under Strube since she was 13.

“Bob is the bomb dot com, he’s trained 19 or 20 Olympic trial qualifiers,” Mathys said.
Strube has been using the same method ever since he started training swimmers.

“As far as the championship season we probably have the best success record in the state,” Strube said.
This success does not come easy for these swimmers though. If Mathys makes the trial cut, she will be the first one from the Wheaton Club team to make the cut.

“Training for trials is intense because they are in about nine months which means I’m in a real time crunch because I’m only two seconds away from my cut,” said Mathys, “Within these nine months I have to not only train to stay in shape but also have exceptional strength, and I have to swim a bunch of championship meets.”

Her best swim in the event she hopes to qualify in is a 2:04.65 in the 200 free; she needs a 2:02.39 to qualify for the Olympic trials.

“When I swam that I wasn’t completely healthy and I was still strengthening up my shoulder from a previous injury. I’m hoping I’ll be at full strength to get this cut, I was 80% then and when I’m 100% I should be fine,” Mathys said.

Strube has the same mentality and faith in Mathys.

“I think she can drop the two seconds in a 50 meter pool, and if she had been healthy she would’ve already had it,” Strube said.

Mathys has some big competition this year. However, she can definitely handle it considering her inconceivable track record. She has been a state champion two years running with a first place medal her freshman year in the 400 yard freestyle relay also including Maddy and Gabby Sims, and Emily Albrecht. Then during her sophomore year she earned the title for the 200 yard freestyle relay with Emily Albrecht, Gabby Serinute, and Daria Wick.

Mathys has decided not to rejoin DGN’s varsity team this year in order to keep up with her more rigorous training.

“I miss everyone on the DGN swim team, it totally sucks not being with them, but I know this is what I have to do and the Olympic trials only come around once every four years. If you really want something there are other things you have to give up to do that and this was one of the things I had to give up even though I didn’t really want to,” Mathys said.

At this point Mathys is planning on rejoining the team next season.
Anoter DGN state champion and 2013 graduate, Gabby Sims, will also be competing in July’s Olympic trials, but for another country.

“I know that Gabby Sims will be competing in the Canadian Olympic trials,” Mathys said.

Sims has dual citizenship, making her eligible for both the American and Canadian Olympic trials.

“Even though I only had one official year training with the Sims at DGN, they’ve become like family to me and I know whatever they do they’ll be successful,” Mathys said.