Claire Curzan (born June 30, 2004) is an American swimmer and Olympian. Specialising in multiple events, she is an Olympic silver medallist in the 4×100 meter medley relay in the 2020 Summer Olympics, swimming the butterfly leg of the relay in the prelims. She also holds the junior world record in the long course 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly and the short course 50 meter butterfly and 100 meter butterfly. She swims for the Virginia Cavaliers.
Having started swimming at three years old, Curzan was raised in Cary, North Carolina. She holds an American record holder in the short course 50 meter backstroke and 50 meter butterfly and formerly held the American record in the 100 yard butterfly. As a 15-year-old at the 2019 World Junior Championships, she won medals in three individual events, silver in the 100 meter backstroke and bronze in the 50 meter and 100 meter butterfly.
At the 2021 World Short Course Championships, she won bronze medals in the 50 meter butterfly and 100 meter butterfly. In 2022, she won a bronze medal in the 100 meter backstroke at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships and silver medals in the 50 meter backstroke and 200 meter backstroke as well as a bronze medal in the 100 meter backstroke at the 2022 World Short Course Championships.
Early life and education
Curzan was raised in Cary, North Carolina and started swimming when she was three years old. She graduated from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2022. In October 2021, she committed to competing collegiately for Stanford University, where she started competing for the school team in the fall of 2022. In August 2023, she announced she was transferring to the University of Virginia, whose swim and dive team had won 3 consecutive NCAA championships.
Swimming career
2019
2019 World Junior Championships
When she was 15 years of age, Curzan competed at the 2019 World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary, winning a total of four medals, of which three were in individual events. On August 21, she won her first medal of the Championships, a silver medal in the 100 meter backstroke with a time of 1:00.00. She followed her silver medal up with a bronze medal on August 23 in the 50 meter butterfly, where she finished third in 25.81 seconds, just 0.11 seconds behind the gold medalist in the event and fellow American Torri Huske. On the final day of competition, August 25, she finished third in the 100 meter butterfly with a time of 58.37, winning the bronze medal and missing out on the gold medal to Torri Huske. She wrapped up her competition swimming backstroke on the 4×100 meter medley relay, splitting a time of 1:00.75 and helping the relay win the gold medal in a time of 3:59.13.
2020–2021
As a 16-year-old in August 2020, Curzan set a new National Age Group record in the 100 yard butterfly for the girls 15–16 age group with a time of 49.73 seconds. In November, at the 2020 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, she won the gold medal in the 100 meter butterfly with a Championships record of 56.61 seconds, the bronze medal in the 100 meter freestyle with a 54.93, and placed fourth in the 50 meter freestyle with a 25.23 and the 100 meter backstroke with a 1:00.30. At the 2021 TAC Titans Premier Meet, conducted in long course meters in April, she became the second-fastest female American performer ever in the 100 meter butterfly, with a time of 56.20 seconds that moved her up in rankings behind fastest female American Dana Vollmer and ahead of third-fastest female American Kelsi Dahlia. The 56.20 was a girls 15–16 and 17–18 national age group record and a world junior record. The following month, at the 2021 TAC Spring Invitational, she set a new world junior record in the long course 50 meter freestyle with a time of 24.17 seconds. Two days later at the invitational, she set a new girls 15–16 national age group record in the long course 100 meter freestyle with a personal best time of 53.55 seconds, breaking the former record of 53.63 seconds by Missy Franklin in 2011.
2020 Olympic Trials
In 2021, Curzan placed second in the final of the 100 meter butterfly at the US Olympic Team Trials in Omaha, Nebraska with a time of 56.43 seconds, qualifying her for the 2020 US Olympic Team. The 2020 Olympic Games were the first Olympic Games she qualified to compete at, making her just 16 years old when she qualified and 17 years old at her Olympic debut.