When Coronado High School graduate Dylan Matter first watched\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0as an eight-year-old with his grandfather, he never imagined that years later the two would step onto the starting line themselves. Now 19, Dylan and his 73-year-old grandfather\u2014Doug Matter, known affectionately as \u201cPop\u201d\u2014are racing around the world as part of the newest season of the Emmy-winning reality series.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first person who introduced me to\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0was actually my grandpa. I was around like 8 years old\u2026 he took care of me when I was younger. Both my parents work, so he and my grandma would take care of me every day during the week,\u201d Dylan told me. \u201cAnd some days we\u2019d watch TV. He really got me into\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0then. It was a show that he really loved. And I was immediately hooked, and we\u2019ve watched ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dream of competing together began almost immediately. \u201cI told him at eight. I said, someday we\u2019re gonna apply,\u201d Dylan recalled. \u201cAnd after a quick Google search, we learned that you have to be 18 to apply. So he said, \u2018Hey, in 10 years, if you still want to apply with me and I\u2019m still healthy enough, let\u2019s run it together.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan grew up in the San Diego area and attended CUSD schools from elementary through high school, where he served as ASB president during his senior year. He also served on the Coronado Unified District school board as a student board member, representing all four schools: Village, Strand, CMS, and CHS.<\/p>\n
The lifelong goal to compete on\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0became a reality shortly after Dylan\u2019s 18th birthday. \u201cSo actually on my 18th birthday, me and my grandpa went skydiving together, at 18 and 72. And then I would say, maybe a month or so later, we ended up applying,\u201d he explained. \u201c[We] filmed our video in one take, sent it in, and that was enough for us. We were just happy to do it. I was glad that he kept his promise after all that time and that we were close enough still, you know, to apply for something like that together.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the call finally came confirming that they had been cast, the moment was beyond surreal. \u201cMy grandpa\u2026 he always thought it was a long shot; he said, \u2018There\u2019s no way they\u2019re gonna cast me.\u2019 He said, \u2018I\u2019m 72, you know; they\u2019re gonna be worried about my life experience, my age, and they\u2019re gonna be worried about your age.\u2019 I was 18 at the time. And so we always kind of thought it was a long shot. But I suddenly got that call, and it was through-the-roof excitement. I think we both started tearing up a bit. It was just a surreal moment, something I\u2019ve been dreaming about my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Dylan and his grandfather have always been very close, running the race together strengthened their already tight bond, something Dylan is extremely grateful for. \u201cOur relationship is very close. I think closer than most grandparents and grandsons, and I\u2019m very fortunate for that. And I didn\u2019t think our relationship could get any closer, but I think somehow this grew our bond even more,\u201d he effused. \u201cYou know, I love Pop. He\u2019s a hero to me, one of my biggest role models. And to run something like\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0with him was just an absolute dream. It\u2019s harder than you think it is, more fun, more exhausting, more incredible\u2026 Everything we wished it was, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Pop being the oldest contestant on this season, Dylan said it never felt like a disadvantage. \u201cI never thought of it as a negative in our team. I think what I lacked in life experience, he brought to the table, and maybe what he was missing is some of, like, the younger generation stuff I brought,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think we really complement each other in that way. I never found it as something that was gonna hurt our ability to race. We had a lot of confidence in ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hardest part of the competition, according to Dylan, was maintaining composure during stressful moments. \u201cHonestly, it just [was] keeping my cool in those high-intensity situations\u2026 and honestly, Pop was there for me every step of the way. He\u2019s been a firefighter for, I think, 35 years or so; he was a fire captain. And so he knows how to stay calm in those high-pressure situations, which is something that I\u2019m not as good at. So he really kept me grounded through the whole race.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the season premiere approaches, Dylan and Pop are holding their secrets close. \u201cWe haven\u2019t told anybody anything. That was one of me and Pop\u2019s rules. We\u2019re not going to tell anybody anything. So mostly just [excited] for my friends and family to see, you know, stuff that we did.\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0is just so unpredictable, so crazy. You\u2019re doing things in places you never thought you\u2019d go, and things you probably never would have done otherwise. And just to see me and Pop on that screen after we wanted to do it for so long together. I think it\u2019s just gonna be great for everyone to watch, and I\u2019m just really excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Season 39 of The Amazing Race premieres with a special two-night event on Wednesday, September 30 and Thursday, October 1, from 9:30 to 11:00 p.m. on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.<\/p>\n
VOL. 116, NO. 39 – Sept. 30, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Coronado High School graduate Dylan Matter first watched\u00a0The Amazing Race\u00a0as an eight-year-old with his grandfather, he never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3211,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-486978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-coronado_island_news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}