USA Swimming Unveils 18-Swimmer Roster for Doha Worlds; Claire Curzan in Six Events

Claire Curzan -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

USA Swimming Unveils 18-Swimmer Roster for Doha Worlds; Claire Curzan in Six Events

The next edition of the World Aquatics Championships will take place in February, less than six months before the start of the Paris Olympics. Given the proximity to the Olympics, selection meets and college championship meets (for those based in the United States), the meet in Doha, Qatar, will be missing many of the top swimmers in the world.

USA Swimming had already announced a limited selection procedure that would only nominate one swimmer per event to the Worlds team, and the final roster includes only 18 swimmers, with five women and 13 men. Ten of the swimmers heading to Doha also competed at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

After finishing third in multiple events at U.S. Nationals this summer, Claire Curzan narrowly missed the Fukuoka team, but she will return to take on a full lineup of events in February. Curzan will swim the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke, 50 and 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle in addition to a full complement of relays. Also heading to Doha will be Kate Douglass, the reigning world champion in the women’s 200 IM and silver medalist in the 200 breaststroke. The women’s team will also include teenage veterans Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein plus rookie breaststroker Piper Enge.

The men’s team for Doha will include 50 backstroke world champion and world-record holder Hunter Armstrong and multi-time Worlds silver medalist Carson Foster. Foster’s older brother Jake Foster will make his debut at a major championship meet.

Also back from the Fukuoka team are veteran breaststroker Nic Fink, sprinter Matt King and the freestyle trio of Luke Hobson, David Johnston and Charlie Clark. Another big-name swimmer who missed last year’s Worlds team, Michael Andrew, makes his return to global competition as he plans to compete in all four 50-meter races in Doha. Zach Harting, a U.S. Olympian in 2021, will return to the World Championships.

The USA Swimming announcement of the roster noted that this global meet falls at an unusual time on the swimming calendar, which forced athletes to make difficult decisions on their attendance. USA Swimming wrote, “With NCAA conference championship meets occurring soon after and the 2024 Olympic Games just months later, athletes who met the selection criteria and were offered the opportunity to compete at these world championships were faced with difficult decisions based on their collegiate schedule or training plans for Paris.”

View the full American roster for Doha here.

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