Racing at a Hamilton YMCA Aquatic Club intrasquad over the weekend, 18-year-old David Curtiss swam to times of 19.48 in the 50 free and 43.82 in the 100 free.
In both events, he was just hundredths off of his lifetime bests. His best in the 50 free, 19.42, is from the 2020 Easterns Championships (typically the fastest private high school/prep school championships nationwide). In that race, he took down Ryan Murphy‘s National Independent HS Record of 19.54 from 2012. In the 100 free, he’s been 43.77, a time he also hit at Easterns in February.
Curtiss told SwimSwam that his performances over the weekend were done unshaved and untapered after a morning lift. His last official swims, per the USA Swimming database, where at a Hamilton meet on November 1, when he clocked lifetime bests in the 200 free (1:39.95), 100 IM (52.06) and 50 breast (25.66).
Below is a video of his 50 free from this past weekend.
Note: SwimSwam hand-timed to verify the time from this meet, which does not currently have results available, clocking times of 19.42, 19.37 and 19.49.
Curtiss is coming off of a huge summer of 2019 where he snagged a silver medal in the 50m free at the 2019 World Junior Championships (going 21.95 in semifinals). An NC State ’25 commit set to join the Wolfpack next fall, Curtiss should make a huge impact on their roster; before he joins the team, though, he’ll be a dark horse pick for the Olympic roster in the 50 free next summer.
Black momba
Idk how this was intrasquad. This was swum at the Peddie School Pool
Did he breath on the first stroke?
On his instagram, it says he is a #speedopartner, and he has a bunch of speedo photos, that really seems like a sponsorship, but I assume it can’t be since he is committed to swim at NC State. Does anyone have any info on this?
I was wondering the same, you can be a partner without earning money though, but just wearing the brand and showing it off for the company. I’m sure he will be sponsored after college.
Great job! It’s cool to think how if the ISL survives (fingers crossed), it can really shifty your perspective. I could see this dude come out of college and be a force to be reckoned with there + the Olympic/world level!
Also his stroke is so smooth out front. Like buttah!
I was saying that to a friend, he looked so clean!! Can’t wait to see him go 18 soon with a full taper!
IMO, he will benefit greatly from a little more lift up front. It looks as if he “torpedoes” a bit. Pretty impressive swimming and results, especially given his head and body position. Upside looks very bright indeed!
Just waiting for all the comments about how Schooling could have gone a blah, blah, blah in the blah, blah, blah wearing a blah, blah, blah after a practice of blah, blah, blah.
What does Schooling have to do with this article?
What is it with swim videos being recorded on toasters? This looks like it was recorded on a Razr flip phone
Video quality is lowered drastically in the process of sending a file that large not in the video itself being filmed on a phone.
Why the 240p upload then? Take it home and upload it, YouTube compression isn’t that bad.
I would expect that 52.06 100im to be faster considering that he’s elite at 50s of every stroke. But that time would only be rated at a 30 on college swimming.com, which is absolute garbage.
Maybe that website’s rating scale is a little off though 🤔
who’s Joe Mama?