Claire Curzan Feels ‘Mostly Relief’ in Record-Setting Return to Prominence
Each decision was made with the intent of maximizing her chances at a second consecutive Olympic team. Having transferred from Stanford to Virginia and chosen to sit out the 2023-24 collegiate season, Claire Curzan was all in on long course, and it appeared she was building momentum when she bounced back from a difficult 2023 summer season to win six medals at the February 2024 World Championships. Sure, the meet was missing many of the world’s best swimmers, but Curzan’s gold-medal-sweep of the backstroke events was very impressive.
But four months later, she was unable to repeat those results at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Three years after making the team in the 100 butterfly, she ended up fourth and two seconds off the pace in her one-time signature event. She fell to eighth in the 100 backstroke and then, after holding down second through much of the 200 back final, she ended up third, with Phoebe Bacon running down Curzan for the No. 2 spot on the Olympic team in the final 50 meters.
Curzan had clocked 2:06.34 in the Trials final, a swim which would have been her best time at the start of the year, but she was seven hundredths short of a trip to Paris. The frustration of missing out would stick, even as Curzan took two months away from the sport.
“I got really jaded with the (idea of) ‘hard work equals progress,” Curzan said. “I essentially put my life on pause for the entirety of the year, and the result wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I put in all this work and I dedicated all this time, and I didn’t exactly see the results. So what’s to say that it won’t happen again in the future?”
Claire Curzan — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Those negative emotions would consume Curzan for several months, even after she returned to Charlottesville, Va., to begin her first season as an official member of the Cavaliers. Breaking out of that rut would require several tough conversations, mostly with her longtime sports psychologist and with Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo. But by the time Curzan raced at the Tennessee Invitational, the team’s midseason meet and final competition until 2025, she had recaptured some of the old form that made her one of the most accomplished age group and high school swimmers ever.
Even three years removed from her high school graduation, Curzan still holds 17 National Age Group records, and her high school records in the 100 fly and 100 back have not been threatened. In Knoxville, she added another accomplishment to her ledger: American-record holder and fastest swimmer ever in the 200-yard back.
One day prior, Curzan had raced built confidence with a tough double, clocking 49.50 50 in the 100 fly, a quarter-second off her best time that once stood as the American record, and then 49.37 in the 100 back, a best time. In the 200 back, she would race in a one-on-one super-final against Gretchen Walsh, a fourth-year teammate at UVA who has rewritten the record book in the short course sprint events over the past two years.
But in an eight-lap race, one in which she had previously won an NCAA title (2023) and entered the meet ranking fourth all-time, Curzan would have her way. After pacing herself off Walsh during the first half of the race, Curzan blasted ahead on the third 50. Coming home, she held her pace to finish ahead of the existing records, the American and U.S. Open marks of 1:47.16 previously held by Regan Smith and the NCAA record of 1:47.24 belonging to Beata Nelson.
Curzan’s time was 1:46.87, making her the first woman ever under 1:47. She had previously held American records in both short course yards and short course meters, but this was the first time she held the title of fastest ever in an event.
The emotion that followed for Curzan was “mostly relief,” with the performance casting away months of built-up anxiety.
“Swimming is an individual sport. The team is so much fun in college and having everyone cheer for you, but at the end of the day, your performances are only attributed to what you do in the pool. I take the hardships very hard. So it’s been a lot of self-beatdown,” Curzan said. “It was great to prove to myself that my training can translate.”
For more on Curzan and her record-setting performance at the Tennessee Invitational, check out a full feature story in the upcoming issue of Swimming World Magazine.
