Following her final collegiate races at the Women’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, USC’s Claire Tuggle announced her retirement from swimming on Instagram on Tuesday.
Woke up a swammer this morning. I couldn’t be more grateful for the journey this sport has provided me, and thank you to everyone who supported me through it all.
Onto the next!
This past week at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, Tuggle had her highest individual finish in the 500 freestyle, touching 18th in prelims in 4:39.76, and added a 31st-place finish in the 200 free (1:44.58). Tuggle also contributed to the Trojans’ 7th-place 800 free relay with a 1:42.99 split and a 48.66 split on the 11th-place 400 free relay.
Tuggle represented the Trojans each of the last three seasons, notably finishing 2nd at the 2025 Big Ten Championships last season in the 500 free in 4:35.43. She was named to the All-Academic Big Ten team that season and was also a member of the All-Big Ten Second Team. She later went on to finish 11th in the 500 free (3:37.23), 12th in the 200 free (1:43.81), and 21st in the 100 free (48.07 at the 2025 NCAA Championships.
Before her time with USC, Tuggle competed at the University of Virginia, where, as a freshman, she finished 4th in the 500 free and 7th in the 1650 free at the ACC Championships.
Tuggle was also a member of the US Junior National Team from 2018 to 2022. Among her international career highlights was a gold medal at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships as a member of the women’s 4×200 free relay, anchoring the US team to gold in 1:58.39.
Tuggle still holds both the 200 free (1:47.27) and 500 free (4:49.32) 11-12 short course National Age Group Records, which she set at the 2017 NCSA Junior Nationals.
what a career for Tuggle 🤩🤩
Claire was 10 years old at the Far Western Championships in Morgan Hill in 2015. Top seeded finalists were picking their walk out songs and many of the older swimmers were picking fun/silly songs, think SpongeBob theme song. Claire opted for The Imperial March, Darth Vaders theme song, then proceeded to smash the NAG record for 9-10 girls in the 200 freestyle.
It was always a pleasure to see her race and train when I had the chance over the years.
Congrats on a great career.
That’s a great story, thanks for sharing.
I would’ve been impressed if she had picked a Napalm Death or Pig Destroyer song.
So much love for this girl 💗 She has enjoyed the fruits of all her hard work. Its been an honor to race in relays with her and room with her. So proud and can’t wait to see what she does next ✌️
Bubye
One of my favorites. Like many, she was impacted by the murder of the UVA football players. A big heart with great values and quite a swimmer.
Wait Wydm in the second sentence
Please use your skills and look it up. If you don’t have those skills, please learn them. You have a universe of knowledge at your fingertips.
I saw her in Budapest in 2019, she was one of the biggest stars.
The other results are also for the record books:
Quite the swim career! I wish Claire the best with life afterwards as a swammer.
I have already rooted for Claire to do her best. I’m happy she continued on, even through the struggles we all see. I truly hope she leaves the support with fond memories and a smile on her face. She had a wonderful swimming career.
*sport not support