After one season at Stanford University, NCAA champion Claire Curzan is transferring to the University of Virginia, where she’ll be eligible for the three-time defending champion Cavaliers next fall after an Olympic redshirt year. Mel Stewart and I wanted to dive into a deeper conversation around this topic to both provide context on Curzan’s transfer as well as look ahead to what this might mean for Curzan heading into the Olympic year.
Too often do we look at someone transferring as a swimmer. I think it’s important to remember that they are a human being who falls under the umbrellas of student, athlete, family member, and friend. There are many, many factors that go into a college being the right or wrong fit for someone. I’m not saying this should be the center of this conversation but I do think it should be taken into consideration when forming an opinion on it. The reality is we don’t know why Claire Curzan decided to transfer and probably won’t know unless she decides to make a statement on it.
As for the future with Curzan at Virginia, head coach Todd DeSorbo looks like an ideal candidate to lead the NCAA champion into Olympic Trials. UVA has built a reputation of developing swiss army knife-esque swimmers who flourish in a variety of events, which is exactly how Curzan came into college. She has five legitimate events that she could make an Olympic team in (50/100 free, 100/200 back, 100 fly) and it seems that under DeSorbo and the UVA staff, she may have a focus on all of them.
The true litmus test is the pro training group that chooses to train with Greg. They would be unaffected by the stress of academics. Is anyone that isn’t there for the Standard education training with him? This is where the BOD gives a “no confidence” vote for the CEO. People have lost faith and no Greg Meehan PR video from you guys can change that.
A lot of discourse here about the fit of each school for Claire, which is obviously the most important factor in this news
That being said, from the swimming perspective, this kind of feels like Kevin Durant to the Warriors. Virginia may lose Kate Douglass, but replacing her with Claire and Leah Hayes means that the end of this dynasty is not in the foreseeable future (with the possible exception of this year due to the high number of Olympic redshirts).
Todd Desorbo+a happier Claire could end up resulting in 2-4 individual events and 2-3 relays at the olympics next summer. If everything goes well, sub-58 backstroke, sub-56 butterfly, and sub-53 freestyle from flat starts are all in the realm… Read more »
Oh yeah, great idea for her to keep dispersing on 3 different strokes…. 🙄
If she continues that mistake then she will keep being very good in multiple events but never great at one or two where she could win an individual gold.
I mean so far it’s working pretty well for Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, and Alex Walsh, so clearly Desorbo knows how to maximize results in multiple strokes. Given where her personal best times are at right now, she’s a threat for gold medals in 0 events, so may as well keep developing multiple events until one of them starts to stand out above the others.
This is like professional boxing in the early 1900s …. Round 86 for Meehan.
Please, somebody, “Throw the damn towel!”
~ Trainer Tony ‘Duke’ Evers, Rocky IV
Well Stanford is an excellent school, but it doesn’t look so great that its president has resigned because of suspect research. Guess the pressure got to him too.
it’s actually not fair to blame the coach only for the problem at Stanford, when the real issue underlying is about training intensity, didn’t the swimmers leaving Stanford mention training intensity/volume as their reason for leaving? Husk’s 100FL relay swim at Fukuoka is another possible evidence, when she basically died off at 75 meters.
While the coaches does prescribe training sets for each practice, actual training intensity depends a lot on teammates pushing each other lap after lap, which is not happening at Stanford, when many of their swimmers put equal priority on academics and swimming, that is to put in a polite way, in reality for many of the swimmers at Stanford, their goal of swimming is to get… Read more »
I’m not sure the load of yardage/intensity is any different at ASU where Regan now swims. Bob Bowman’s swimmers say over and over again that the yardage and intensity is much harder in comparison to other schools. But then again- Virginia does much less yardage depending on the swimmer. I’m not sure swimming load has anything to do with it. TAC Titans also do quite a bit of yardage with most workouts being around 6,000 yds in short course season. I also think Claire is one of those swimmers that would rise to any physical challenge.
What are the chances of getting Greg Meehan back on the podcast?
Greg Meehan is a complete waste of time.
Bring in Chris Plumb from Carmel Swim Club and discuss the development of Alex Shackell and what might the future hold:
100 FR
200 FR
100 FL
200 FL
swimfan alternate account??
Relay names, Swimfan, and Murica the same person??
Often imitated, never duplicated.
The only culture that currently exists at the Stanford women’s swimming program is one of underachievement. List the number of personal best times in the long course events set this decade by female swimmers not named Curzan, Huske, Smith.
Under the tutelage of former head coach Greg Meehan, Regan Smith set one personal best time (LCM) in the W 50 BK during her freshman year. Compare the number of personal best times (LCM) set by Regan Smith in the following year under head coach Bob Bowman:
200 FR
50 BK
50 FL
100 FL
200 FL
200 IM
Under the tutelage of former head coach Greg Meehan, Regan Smith failed to qualify for the W… Read more »
Aurora Raghair was 8:58 in the 800 and now goes 8:40 .. thats just an example off the top of my head.
Coleman Hodges mentions the name Greg Meehan and the dog goes bonkers in the background.