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Claire Curzan: No Limits!
By David Rieder
Claire Curzan has been swimming fast since she was a young age grouper and has continued to do so in high school. Last March, she came within 13-hundredths of the American record in the short course 100 fly, and in April, she found herself within 22-hundredths of the long course U.S. best. She’s versatile, she’s coachable, she has international experience, and she’s moved from a fringe Olympic contender to an Olympic favorite. Curzan is only 16, and her promising future couldn’t be brighter.
For years, Claire Curzan has been recognized as one of the most impressive young swimmers in the country. She has been consistently setting national age group records in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle events since she was 12, and in the summer of 2019, she earned some acclaim by finishing second in the 100 meter back and fifth in the 100 fly at U.S. Nationals. At the World Junior Championships a few weeks later, Curzan won four medals: silver in the 100 back, bronze in the 50 fly and 100 fly and gold on the U.S. women’s 400 medley relay.
In February 2020, Curzan broke a pair of national high school records in the 100 yard fly and 100 back while representing Cardinal Gibbons High School at North Carolina’s high school state championships. She was a high school sophomore at that point, only 15.
Anyone who has followed Curzan’s career could see her special potential quite clearly, but then the COVID-19 hiatus came and competition came to a halt. As soon as Curzan returned to competition, she was already one of the best sprint butterflyers in the world.
At a July 2020 intrasquad meet, Curzan’s first competitive foray in four months, she swam a 50.03 in the short course 100 fly, making her the eighth-fastest swimmer in history. A few weeks later, she swam under 50 seconds for the first time. By March 2021, Curzan had nearly taken down the American record. She swam a 49.51, just off Erika Brown’s record of 49.38, and good for fifth-fastest all-time in the event.
SHE CAN SWIM LONG COURSE, TOO
Well, sure, that’s just short course yards, but over the course of several months, Curzan rapidly proved herself in the big pool, too.
Pre-COVID, her 100 meter fly best time was 57.87, but in the fall of 2020, she dropped to 57.57 and then, at the U.S. Open in November, to 56.61. Suddenly, the 16-year-old had vaulted herself into a three-way tie for 12th-fastest all-time in the 100 fly, sharing that spot with the likes of 2000 Olympic gold medalist Inge de Bruijn, and third-fastest ever among Americans behind only 2012 Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer and 2016 Olympian Kelsi Dahlia. It was the fastest time any American swimmer had posted since 2018.
The whole week of training before, I wasn’t really feeling that great in the water,” Curzan said. “I felt kind of heavy, and then in warm-up, my fly felt amazing. I didn’t know I was taking it out as fast as I did. I was just kind of sticking to my race plan and just going off the adrenaline,” Curzan said. “I was just kind of shocked. A little tinkling in the back of my head told me that I could go that fast, but I didn’t really believe it until I looked up and saw it. It was just one of those races where it’s kind of out-of-body.”
But Curzan was not done showing her cards quite yet. In April, while racing against fellow teenage star Torri Huske in the 100 fly at a meet in her home pool in Cary, N.C., Curzan dropped her best time to a stunning 56.20, a performance that reverberated around the swimming world. She moved to eighth all-time in the event and became the second-fastest American ever, ahead of Dahlia.
“I thought I could go 56, 56-mid or high. I don’t know. I was not expecting that,” Curzan said. The immediate aftermath of the swim left Curzan in a state of almost shock, and it took a little while for the impact of her effort to sink in. “I didn’t know I could go that fast. I didn’t know I could drop that much again.”
With just a few quick performances, the Olympics had become much more than a dream. Now, Curzan will go to June’s U.S. Olympic Trials firmly in the spotlight. Her best time is now just 2-tenths off Vollmer’s American record (55.98), and having dropped more than a second in the last year, it’s not crazy to think she could make that leap. She has already swum quicker than the silver medal-winning time from the 2019 World Championships.
And, yeah, she’s still just 16 years old!
To read more about Claire Curzan’s path to Trials…and Tokyo,
Click here to download the full May 2021 issue of Swimming World Magazine, available now!
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[PHOTO CREDIT: ISHOF ARCHIVE]
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Swimming World May 2021 Issue
FEATURES
014 WOMEN’S NCAAs: A NEW NO. 1
For the first time in the history of the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships—since 1982—the University of Virginia finished first. It was also the first time it cracked the top 5 with its previous highest finish sixth in 2019.
- VIRGINIA’S ROAD TO HISTORY
by Dan D’Addona - NC STATE ADDS TO ACC DOMINANCE
by Dan D’Addona - THE TALK OF THE MEET: MAGGIE MacNEIL
by John Lohn
018 MEN’S NCAAs: THE PERFECT RETIREMENT GIFT
Days before their coach, Eddie Reese, officially announced his retirement from coaching after 43 years, the Texas men’s team won their 15th men’s NCAA national team championship.
- THIS ONE’S FOR EDDIE!
by Andy Ross - SCINTILLATING PERFORMANCES: SHAINE CASAS & RYAN HOFFER
by John Lohn - PATIENCE REWARDED: MAX McHUGH & NICK ALBIERO
by Andy Ross
022 NCAA D-II CHAMPS: SOME THINGS NEVER SEEM TO CHANGE
by Andy Ross
A year into the pandemic that has completely changed our world, Queens University of Charlotte brought about some stability to the 2021 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships by sweeping their sixth straight women’s and men’s team titles.
023 NO LIMITS!
by David Rieder
Claire Curzan has been swimming fast since she was a young age grouper and has continued to do so in high school. Last March, she came within 13-hundredths of the American record in the short course 100 fly, and in April, she found herself within 22-hundredths of the long course U.S. best. She’s versatile, she’s coachable, she has international experience, and she’s moved from a fringe Olympic contender to an Olympic favorite. Curzan is only 16, and her promising future couldn’t be brighter.
026 TAKEOFF TO TOKYO: WHEN IRISH EYES WEREN’T SMILING
by John Lohn
Ireland’s Michelle Smith—a four-time Olympic medalist in 1996 who received a four-year ban from the sport in 1998 for tampering with a doping sample—has been defined as being a poster girl for cheating, and by her willingness to cut corners and take advantage of performance-enhancing drug use to make the leap from an athlete of very-good skill to one of elite status.
029 50 SWIMMERS, 6 MEDALS
by Dan D’Addona
The Tokyo Olympics will mark the fourth occasion that open water swimming will be contested on the Olympic level, and even a 10-kilometer marathon race can bring exciting moments and dramatic finishes.
030 JOSH MATHENY: RISING STAR
by Matthew De George
From a middle-schooler newly committed to swimming full-time in 2016, the future looks encouraging for 18-year-old Josh Matheny, who approaches the U.S. Olympic Trials for Tokyo in June as a dark horse to make the team in men’s breaststroke.
032 ISHOF: THE ART OF SWIMMING
by Bruce Wigo
This is the story of Hero and Leander, Lord Byron and the birth of open water swimming.
035 NUTRITION: HYDRATION—BEYOND THIRST!
by Dawn Weatherwax
Hydration truly has a daily importance for all kinds of swimmers from age groupers to Olympians to Masters swimmers, but it tends to get more notoriety when the weather gets warmer.
COACHING
012 THE POWER OF POSITIVE COACHING
by Michael J. Stott
Relationships built upon honesty, trust and communication go a long way toward cementing a bond between coach and athlete. Coupling that with knowledge of the individual first and athlete second produces a positive working relationship that can last for a lifetime.
038 SWIMMING TECHNIQUE CONCEPTS: MAXIMIZING SWIMMING VELOCITY (Part 1)—STROKE RATE vs. STROKE LENGTH
by Rod Havriluk
Swimming velocity is the criterion measure for swimming performance and is the product of stroke length and stroke rate. This article explains how stroke length and stroke rate vary and how stroke time provides insight into maximizing swimming velocity.
042 Q&A WITH COACH STEVE HAUFLER
by Michael J. Stott
044 HOW THEY TRAIN CHARLOTTE SHAMIA
by Michael J. Stott
TRAINING
037 DRYSIDE TRAINING: THE IM DRYLAND CIRCUIT
by J.R. Rosania
JUNIOR SWIMMER
047 UP & COMERS: TEAGAN O’DELL
by Shoshanna Rutemiller
COLUMNS
008 A VOICE FOR THE SPORT
011 DID YOU KNOW: ABOUT THE MOREHOUSE TIGER SHARKS?
046 THE OFFICIAL WORD
048 GUTTERTALK
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