the almanac A U G U S T 25, 2024
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Josh Matheny (seated in the red ring) poses for a photo with his suite mates during a break from swimming in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
SOUTH FAYETTE COMMUNITY DAY TAKING PLACE AT FAIRVIEW PARK PAGE A4
Olympic odyssey Matheny makes Los Angeles his next goal
BP’S MCELVENNY PREPARED FOR PARALYMPICS IN PARIS PAGE B1
By Eleanor Bailey
The Almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.net
During the 2024 Summer Olympics, Josh Matheny was able to see his parents briefly. He met with them once for 30 to 40 minutes at a Parisian cafe. “It was hard to see people outside the Olympic Village,” the 21-year-old son of Dr. Jeffrey and Kristin Matheny said. So, since spending much of the summer away from home in Upper St. Clair, training for and competing in the Olympics, Matheny embraced his short stay in Upper St. Clair with close friends and immediate family before heading back to Bloomington to complete his studies at Indiana University. Noting his schedule – trials starting on June 15, four-week training camp, first in North Carolina and then in Croatia, Olympic Games from July 26 to Aug. 11 – Matheny’s high school and club coach Dave Schraven said, “Josh has been gone for a long time. So he really wanted to come home, lay low and decompress. He doesn’t seek the limelight.” Matheny slipped home a day before the closing ceremony. Instead of marching with the 10,000 athletes in front of 71,000 spectators SEE MATHENY PAGE A2
ANNUAL CAR CRUISE PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT UPMC CHILDREN’S PAGE B3 What’s happening, B3 Real estate transactions, A2 ASSOCIATED PRESS
Josh Matheny celebrates after advancing to the semifinals of the 200-meter breaststroke race during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Classifieds, B4-6
Meaningful memento
Matheny gifts USC swim coach Olympic flag By Eleanor Bailey
The Almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.net
Swimmer Josh Matheny of Upper St. Clair brought home many souvenirs from the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. One of those tokens now belongs to Dave Schraven. The Mt. Lebanon resident coached Matheny when he attended Upper St. Clair High School and when he trained for the Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics Club based in Scott Township. The memento was an official Olympic flag featuring the signatures of a dozen members of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. According to Schraven, Matheny received three such tokens from U.S. Swimming. One was to be a keepsake for the athlete while the others were to be freely distributed to those most responsible for
helping the individual “get” to Paris. In addition to Schraven, Matheny intended to give the other flag to Ray Looze, the men’s swimming coach at Indiana University, where Matheny will be a senior this fall. “It’s an honor to receive this,” said Schraven, but noted that there were “a lot of us” responsible for Matheny’s achievement. Schraven plans to hang the flag in a prominent place at the Upper St. Clair High School pool, where Matheny predominantly swam. “I want the younger kids to see it and think or say to themselves, ‘Maybe that could be me.’ It will be a good motivational tool,” Schraven said. When he came out of Stanford University, after helping the Cardinals win a NCAA championship and swimming his best 200-meter individu-
Josh Matheny, right, gave this Olympic flag, autographed by members of the U.S. swim team, to David Schraven upon his return from Paris. Schraven served as Matheny’s youth coach at Upper St. Clair High School and with the Pittsburgh Elite Aquatics Club.
al medley only to finish 20th at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1988, Schraven was not inspired to become a coach. Though he continued to stay in shape by swimming in a masters program, Schraven only started to coach in 2002, when Tom Burchill asked for
his help with the Mt. Lebanon Aqua Club. “I did not intend to be a swim coach,” Schraven said. “It started as a hobby and I stuck to it. “For anyone who coaches, it’s very fulfilling helping kids achieve goals. Rewarding to
watch people perform and see the fruits of their efforts pay off,” he added. Years of swimming laps at USC that transformed into a plethora of scholastic records and medals as well as WPIAL championships and PIAA state titles, Matheny
moved on to become a Big 10 All-American at IU as well as a dominant force at world competitions. In June, he competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials and qualified for the 200-meter breaststroke. SEE FLAG PAGE A3