Charlie Houchin Drops Off of SC Worlds Team

Olympian Charlie Houchin has chosen against swimming at the Short Course World Championships in Istanbul this winter, as USA Swimming has updated their roster for the meet that runs from December 12th-16th.

Houchin was entered to swim only the 800 free relay on the original roster, the same event that he swam in 2012 at the London Olympics. He has now been removed from that lineup and replaced by Michael Klueh, who was already on the team to swim the individual 400 free – an event that he was 3rd in at the Olympic Trials.

The Americans have dominated the 800 free relay in long course competition, including winning the last three Olympic golds, but they are a bit more vulnerable at these short course World Championships. In 2010, they took silver to a World Record for the Russians. In fact, they haven’t won gold at the Short Course World Championships in as long as they’ve been dominant at the Olympics: since the year 2000 where Josh Davis led the USA to a dominant victory ahead of Russia.

Neither man has swum much in short course meters, but for what it’s worth, Klueh’s best in yards (1:33.25) is significantly better than Houchin’s best in yards (1:35.18). Both men haven’t swum a serious yards meet in many years, however.

The full roster, with the changes, is below. The only other swap is that the 100 free has been added to Jimmy Feigen‘s list of events; the original roster only had one American entry in the event.

(Update 10/29: Kara Lynn Joyce is out, Christine Magnuson is in. Read more here.)