Ohio State senior Charlie Clark will take an Olympic redshirt this year, but only for the fall semester — meaning the Buckeyes’ distance star should be back in time for championship season next spring.
“I’m excited to put in a solid block of training to get ready for Trials in June,” Clark told SwimSwam. “As of now I’m planning on staying at OSU to train for the fall.”
Clark will be seeking his fourth consecutive appearance in the 1650-yard freestyle A-final at the 2024 NCAA Championships after placing 8th in 2021 (14:40.70), 8th in 2022 (14:35.58), and 7th this year (14:41.43). He’ll also be searching for his third straight Big Ten title in the 1650 free and fourth straight top-4 finish in the 500 free at the Big Ten Championships.
His 12 NCAA points this past season were Ohio State’s only individual points in the pool other than the 20.5 contributed by Canadian Olympian Ruslan Gaziev, who’s returning to Columbus for his fifth year next season along with 1-meter diving national champion Lyle Yost (46.5 points). The return of Yost, Gaziev, and Clark is huge to anchor a Buckeyes squad that is losing pieces such as Alex Quach (Olympic redshirt), James Ward (NCAA eligibility waiver denied), and Thomas Watkins (graduated).
In long course, Clark is coming off his second World Championships appearance in a row for Team USA, placing 11th in the 1500 free (14:57.16). He once again added time from his U.S. Trials time of 14:50.84, a personal best that placed 2nd behind Bobby Finke. Last year, Clark was the youngest male swimmer on the U.S. roster at 19 years old.
As a team, Ohio State placed 11th at NCAAs last year — the program’s fourth consecutive top-11 finish, marking the longest streak since 1969-75. The highlight came courtesy of Yost, who captured the Buckeyes’ first individual NCAA title in any event since 2016. However, Ohio State dropped two spots from its 2022 placement (9th) and four spots from its 2021 placement (7th).
He could join Johnston, Gallant, Brinegar, Bo, Marwan El Kamash (Hafnaui’s training partner at Indiana), David Porges Avila, Isaac Fleig, Sydney Willson (Janet Evan’s daughter), etc. with Mark Schubert at The Swim Team in sunny southern California. Mark is pretty experienced with tapering for big meets when it matters most. Adding me to the mix doing video, technique, and tracking work, you can visibly see the difference even from the surface.
Mark says it’s the toughest group since the animal lane in the early day of Mission’s world dominance. All these guys will go back to their teams in great shape. None of them were getting underwater much video and stroke feedback so we’ll use Swimmunicators, under, side, pacing video… Read more »
Don’t blame him with the rise of Luka Mijatovic. Looks like he’s feeling the pressure and don’t doubt me.
Selfish coaching advice for Charlie it seems. OSU coaches desperate for B1G and NCAA points knowing they will take a dip this year, not putting best the interests of the athlete at the forefront.
Well they hid the reason someone “transferred” and then told the team not to talk about it.
I am assuming he is academically ineligible for the fall.
I feel for CC. He keeps falling short at World Championships after swimming so great at Nationals. Dorenkott keeps selling him out for big ten’s and ncaa’s. Maybe it’s time to move to a coach and team that is more focused on success at the elite level.
I don’t understand what taking a redshirt “only for the fall” means. Redshirt to me usually means that eligibility is being saved but if he is still swimming in the championship part of the season then I presume that is not the case. I think probably shouldn’t say redshirt in this context.
While it doesn’t really impact eligibility time, it does impact scholarship limits for teams.
got it thanks
Uhm? Ok.
Ohio State diving and swimming is SCREWED. Big 10 belongs to Indiana diving and swimming
It isn’t an Olympic redshirt if he still swims Conf and NCs!
He must be hiding something academic wise or they need his scholarship in the fall or such?