Pan Ams Champ Claire Rasmus Joins TCU Staff; Will Continue Training for Trials

The TCU Horned Frogs swimming & diving team have added All-American Claire Rasmus to their coaching staff as a volunteer assistant for the 2020-2021 season. She becomes one of two Texas A&M alumni serving as a volunteer with the cross-state program: Kyle Troskot is also working as a volunteer assistant on the TCU staff.

Rasmus swam at A&M from 2015 through 2019, where she was a 3-time SEC Champion (1 individual, 2 relays) and a team captain in the 2018-2019 season.

As a junior in 2018, Rasmus finished 6th at the NCAA Championships individually in the 200 free, swimming a 1:43.65. She won the SEC title that year in 1:43.62 and graduated as the school record holder in that event with a 1:43.01 split to lead off A&M’s 800 free relay that season at the NCAA Championships.

Given that she graduated from high school in 2015 with a best time of 1:50.20, even while training with one of the country’s better clubs the Bolles School Sharks, her improvements throughout her college career are truly an outlier.

Rasmus, like Troskot, will continue training at TCU in preparation for the 2021 Olympic Trials. Troskot will be preparing for the Canadian Olympic Trials, while Rasmus will be preparing for the US Olympic Trials.

Since the Rio Olympics, Rasmus is the 14th-ranked American in the 200 free in long course with a best time of 1:57.92 from the 2017 US National Championships. She finished 7th at that meet, which just-missed earning her a top 6 spot that would have sent her to the Pan Pac Championships that year.

Her times have dipped a little since then – her best in 2018 was 1:58.8 and in 2019 she swam 1:58.6 at the Pan American Games. That time last summer won her gold at Pan Ams – one of four gold medals she won at the meet along with the women’s 400 free relay, mixed 400 free relay, and women’s 800 free relay.

She added another two gold medals for Team USA at the 2019 World University Games, winning gold as part of the women’s 400 and 800 free relays.

In 2017, she also swam at the World University Games, where she won a silver medal in women’s 800 free relay and a bronze in the women’s 400 free relay.

Troskot finished his career at A&M in 2014, before Rasmus began hers. One of the team’s full-time assistant coaches, Nathan Lavery, also swam at Texas A&M.

TCU’s women’s team finished 3rd out of 5 teams at the 2020 Big 12 Championships behind Texas and Kansas; the men finished 3rd out of 3 teams, behind Texas and West Virginia.