Claire Curzan: "I'm excited to see how this newfound adultness is going to translate into the rest of my career"
In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, the USA swimming star reveals how her mentality has changed since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, and why a move to Virginia helped her become world champion.
Claire Curzan returned to the World Aquatics Championships with a bang in at Doha 2024, following a frustrating previous season.
A year after taking home five medals from the 2022 Worlds, the USA swimming star agonisingly missed out on the 2023 team due to an illness that meant she could not give of her best at Trials.
But the multi-eventer showed that she had lost none of her impressive sprinting speed in Doha, Qatar, this week, when she landed silver in the women’s 100m butterfly. And the best was still to come.
Two days later, Curzan scorched to victory in the 100m backstroke, almost a second ahead of her rivals, to claim her first individual world title.
Olympics.com caught up with the North Carolina native after that race in the Qatari capital, and opened up by asking whether this perfromance was, above anything else, a sign that she is ready to compete for a place at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
“Yeah, I guess it could be interpreted as that! And also that I’m just excited to be back on this stage again,” she said in an exclusive interview.
**“**Obviously it was super hard that I couldn't be there last year. So I'm just pumped to be back here again. I'm really happy with how the race went. I think it's a really great start to this meet and sets me up well.”
How Claire Curzan has changed since Tokyo 2020 in 2021
Curzan made swimming headlines back in 2021, when she was selected for the USA team for Tokyo 2020 after her brilliant performance at Trials, aged 16.
In Japan, she went on to take home silver as part of the 4x100 medley relay team.
Today, despite still only being 19, the aquatic prodigy feels like an old-hand in the squad.
*“*I was actually reflecting on that going into this meet because there's a lot of younger kids that are on the U.S. team,” she continued.
“So being in the position of a veteran I think has helped me see that I have grown so much. I think I've gotten so much more composed in the ready room and just ready for races. So I'm excited to see how this newfound, almost adultness, is going to translate into the rest of my career.”
Another factor that helped Curzan rediscover her best form was a change in training environment.
In August 2023, she tansferred from Stanford University to the University of Virginia - who have won the past three NCAA women’s swimming titles.
**“**I love being closer to home. It's helped a lot, especially since that health issue with trials last year. Just knowing that my medical team at home and my family were near was definitely huge,” she said.
“I was nervous about it because it's a big transition from pretty big rival schools in the U.S., but the team was super welcoming and it was an easy transition.
“I love the training that (Coach) Todd (DeSorbo) is doing, which has set me up well, and just being around Kate (Douglass), Gretchen (Walsh), and Alex (Walsh) all the time in training, means you race with the best and you're eventually, hopefully, going to be the best.”
There is still a long way to go for Curzan at Doha 2024. She initially entered six individual events across the backstroke, freestyle, and butterfly.
Despite this gruelling challenge, she will keep things simple in her approach for the rest of Doha 2024 and the USA Trials for Paris 2024, which has paid dividends thus far.
“The plan is just to analyse what I could do better, seeing just how to get faster,” she said.
“The goal is always best times, and those best times help me get on teams. So first and foremost, I’m just trying to accomplish my goals timewise and taking it from there.”