After first Olympics, swimming stars 'feel like friends' to Cary's Claire Curzan
Posted August 17, 2021 3:51 p.m. EDT
Updated August 18, 2021 9:47 a.m. EDT
For Cardinal Gibbons high schooler Claire Curzan, running into Katie Ledecky at the Hawaii airport was not just your typical run-of-the-mill celebrity sighting. In fact, it was Ledecky who called out Claire’s name to say hi. Both had tickets punched to the same final destination: Tokyo.
Curzan said, “We were walking to go to baggage claim and there's a, ‘Hey Claire,’ and I turn around and it’s Katie Ledecky. I had to do a double take because no way she actually knew my name, and no way she's actually here in the airport with me.”
Curzan quickly got used to life in the Olympic Village where she was able to swap pins with athletes of other countries and sports.
“You all just kind of become family at the end, and with so many bus rides together, sitting next to everyone that I don't know, it's like they feel like friends. In the end it wasn't weird that I was with Katie Ledecky or Lilly King or Caeleb Dressel,” she said.
Curzan added, “It was definitely an adjustment period and an honor just to be able to associate myself with them. It was kind of an out-of-this-world experience, and you just had to pinch yourself every couple days just being like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm actually here, this is happening. This is real.’”
For most 17-year-olds heading into their senior year, the main concerns are prom, college decisions and how to make their final year count. Rest assured, Curzan says she hasn’t forgotten about any of these things amid a year that most definitely counted.
“I still worry about prom," she said. "I'm so excited. This is my senior year. I can't wait.”
She also said she appreciated the support of classmates and friends especially since she has never felt that she or swimming were particularly popular in her high school.
“Seeing that they're actually interested in swimming, which is not a very popular sport in my high school, and that they want to watch … It's been honestly heartwarming,” she said.
Although Curzan just completed her very first Olympics, she’s already hoping for a long career.
Curzan said, “I think the more you swim, the more levels you discover there are. So, when I was younger I didn't know what a national record is and obviously now I know a little bit better.”
She added, “I'd hope to go for as many cycles as I can, I mean Ashley Twitchell is 30-something years old and she is an Olympian. I would love to be able to go that long and hopefully be able to train at that high of a level for as long as I can. As long as I'm having fun, I'd love to keep swimming.”
Julia Fairchild Roth is a junior at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media specializing in sports broadcast.
