Georgetown Rower to Compete at Paris Olympics

Almost any morning during the past three-plus years, around 5:30 a.m., you could spot Georgetown resident André Matias, 35, rowing on the Potomac River next to Key Bridge. On July 18, Matias will leave for Paris to compete in the Olympic Games, which open on July 26.   

Matias has lived in Georgetown since 2016, when he started at Georgetown Law School. He graduated in 2019 and last year opened his own law practice here. Meanwhile, he began to train at the Potomac Boat Club for the 2024 Games. That meant rowing at least three times a day for about an hour and a half each, plus spending another hour or more lifting weights and cycling. In between, Matias consumes the 5,500 calories or so he requires just to replace the ones he burned.   

In May of 2023, Matias traveled to Tunisia to compete in the regional Olympic trials for rowers. Securing one of the last qualifying spots as a single scull rower at the 2024 Games, he will row in Paris for the country of his birth, the Republic of Angola.    

While Matias is perhaps “old” for the average Olympian, this won’t be his first rodeo, so to speak. In 2016, he competed as a lightweight men’s double sculler in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (where he was especially comfortable speaking his native language of Portuguese). He was introduced to rowing at his boarding high school in New Jersey, going on to college-level competition at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.   

In Rio, Matias was not only with the best rowers in the world, but with the best athletes in all Olympic sports. “One time in the cafeteria I realized [gymnast] Simone Biles was sitting across from me at the next table. I met so many others. It was just magical!”   

Matias took the next four years off from rowing to earn a law degree and start his business, Altius Immigration Law (Altius, which means “superior” in Latin, is part of the Olympic motto). But he couldn’t let his Olympic dreams go. Watching the rowers on the Potomac, he decided, despite his age and the four-year lapse, to try again.    

“It’s unusual to get back to Olympic level in any sport after a yearslong break,” said Peter Schmidt, his friend, coach and fellow competitor. “André is so dedicated and disciplined — though we’d like to get him to eat more.” 

“Peter is so modest,” responded Matias. “He is a champion rower who has won several World Cups.”    

Coaching Matias on the Potomac in front of the club, Schmidt calls out suggestions and critiques on a bullhorn from a small motor boat that he steers behind Matias’s single scull, or sometimes from his own single alongside.    

“The Potomac Rowing Club and Foundation has been crucial in helping me these past years,” Matias said. Founded in 1869, the club, housed in a historic boathouse at 3530 Water St. NW, has supported several Olympic rowers, while serving countless others of every age and skill level. “I look forward to giving back,” he added.  

Raised in Angola and Portugal, Matias, who speaks four languages, has lived on three continents. But the U.S. and Georgetown are now his home. As do most Olympians, he credits his family’s support for his athletic accomplishments. Matias’s grandfather rowed in Portugal as a young man; perhaps that is the source of his grandson’s talent and discipline.  

Matias will be staying in the official Olympic Village, north of the center of Paris, where all the athletes live while competing (most leave once their competitions are over). The rowing events will be held in a brand-new aquatic center at Villiers-sur-Marne, in Paris’s eastern suburbs.    

While rowers almost always compete in boats supplied by the venues where they race, the one “comfort factor” is that with few exceptions they bring their own oars. Each rower has secret criteria which make that oar personally essential. 

The competitors are not alone in feeling the magic of the Olympics. As a director of the Olympic Village for rowers and other aquatic sports at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, this reporter also experienced it. After two years on an irrevocable deadline to accomplish all the minute organizational and security details for the Games, suddenly the athletes arrived. Everything changed. It was indeed magic. 

The dedication of the young athletes to their sports and their excitement to be a part of the Games (in ancient Greece, a time of truce) were contagious. You might even say that the Olympic magic resides in the Olympians themselves, such as Georgetown’s André Matias.  

 Paris Olympics by the Numbers

• $8.2B+ – Estimated cost of hosting the 2024 Paris Olympics.
• 1st – Paris is the most vulnerable capital in Europe when it comes to heatwaves.
• 200% – Increase in Paris hotel prices for Olympics opening night.
• 40K – People who will join the 26 mile “Marathon for All” in Paris on August 10 at 9 pm, considering heat issues.
• 45K – Number of security personnel who will work the Paris Games.
• 16 Years Old – Age of the youngest members of Team USA — gymnast Hezly Rivera is the youngest of three athletes who are age 16.
• 100 Years – Length of time since Paris last hosted the Summer Olympics.

For the full report, click here.

See Georgetowner.com for upcoming stories on the  Olympics.

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