Cary, N.C., June 15, 2021 – Last night in Omaha, 16- year-old Claire Curzan qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team in the Women’s 100 butterfly with a time of 56.43. The effort put her in second place behind 18-year-old Torri Huske, who took first with a time of 55.66.
Curzan, born and raised in Cary, North Carolina, trains at the Triangle Aquatic Center, (TAC), located in Cary. She is coached by a handful of talent, including Bruce Marchionda, who has previously trained Olympians, and Claire Donahue, a London 2012 Olympic medalist.
Curzan started swimming at the young age of 3 on a local community swim team, The Reserve Stingrays, and by 11 years old, decided to swim full-time on a year-round team, eventually finding TAC.
A monumental moment for Claire recently was last April when she swam a 56.20 at a meet in her home pool at TAC. Her hard work paid off as she set a U.S. Open Record that day for the 100-meter butterfly. When asked what one thing she did in training that helped her win her last high-profile race before trials, she answered, “Focusing on underwater and stroke counts during a race have allowed me to analyze my races better and achieve my goals.”
Before trials, Curzan was training two hours a day in the morning, six days a week, and one hour in the afternoon, three days a week. Additionally, she completes dryland and land workouts for one hour in the afternoon three days a week. Curzan dreamed of going to the Olympics and representing Team USA but was able to dial in her training after the postponement for Tokyo 2020 and it paid off.
Curzan’s remaining schedule includes the 100 freestyle prelims on Thursday, and the 50 freestyle prelims on Saturday. She will move on to semifinals then finals in those events if she swims a qualifying time.
To request more information about the swimmers competing in the US Olympic Trials, the TAC TITANS or interviews with Mark Frank, TAC Director of Operations, Michael Curran, TAC Founder, athletes or coaches, contact Megan Heater at [email protected].
About The Triangle Aquatic Center
Triangle Aquatic Center is a state-of-the-art non-profit public aquatic facility founded in 2002. TAC is the largest aquatic facility and campus in North Carolina and is home to three soon-to-be-four pools and a dryland fitness area. Since 2012, the center has included a professionally run year-round USA Swim team, the TAC TITANS. Thanks in part to the Triangle Aquatic Center and the TAC TITANS, USA Swimming ranked the Triangle region as the third-best swimming community in the country. For more information about Triangle Aquatic Center, visit https://www.triangleaquatics.org.
Media Contact:
Megan Heater
S&A Communications
925-548-1571
[email protected]
