Claire Curzan, a Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and 2023 NCAA champion, has entered the NCAA transfer portal. She spent her freshman season at Stanford, and has three years of eligibility remaining.
Curzan was listed as a “do not contact” in the portal, meaning that she does not want other schools to initiate contact with her.
NOTE: A swimmer being in the transfer portal does not mean that they HAVE to transfer to another school, it only means that they have opened up communication with different schools and coaches.
Since Curzan entered the portal after the women’s swimming transfer window closed on April 30, she will not be eligible to compete next NCAA season. That being said, it was revealed in April that her and her teammate Torri Huske would be redshirting the 2023-24 NCAA season to train for the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the initial redshirt announcement, Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said that Curzan would be staying at Stanford during her redshirt year, but SwimSwam has reached out to Curzan’s family regarding her updated future plans.
Coming into her freshman season at Stanford, Curzan was the #1 high school recruit in the country by a long shot. She dropped nearly two seconds and won an NCAA title in the 200 back, but was third and fourth at NCAAs in the 100 back and fly respectively. She saw a 0.06-second drop in her 100 back best time in college, but did not improve in her 100 fly.
Curzan’s Time Progression:
| Pre-Stanford Best Time | 2022-23 Season-best | |
| 50 free | 21.50 | 21.55 (from midseason) |
| 100 fly | 49.24 | 49.93 |
| 100 back | 49.52 | 49.46 |
| 200 back | 1:49.35 | 1:47.43 |
Curzan most recently competed at the 2023 U.S. National Championships, where she was third in the 50 fly, 100 back, and 200 back, as well as fourth in the 100 fly. She also missed the ‘A’ final of the 100 free before scratching the event. In the days leading up to Nationals, Curzan had been hospitalized and receiving IV fluids, and nearly scratched out of the meet two days prior to her arrival.
In 2022, Curzan competed in five individual events at the 2022 World Championships and took bronze in the 100 back. She also swam on four different Team USA relays, all of which landed on the podium.
I’ll bet Princeton!
Buwahahaahha!
I bet my daughters life she’ll go to uva
Congrats on your daughter still being alive
I am out of popcorn after the last few days! *munching through the comments*
The big show starts in one week!
Probably just tired of Huske’s relay exchanges
Greg seems like a great culture guy but there is no denying that Stanford seems to be the place swim careers die. Everyone that has left has revived their career.
Simone Manuel’s career is currently on life support thanks to Greg Meehan.
This is a ridiculously unfair statement. With him she qualified to Rio and won an individual gold medal. With him in 2019 she won the world championship with a new PB.
Easy to blame on him. Who knows what actually happened?
Based on what first hand knowledge?
A different perspective: I am not sure how much professional swimmers in ISL can realistically make or how long their careers last, but for the most part, these college student athletes are there to get a solid education for their future. Swimming just helps them pay for the expensive tuition and living expenses. In that regard, is it really so bad to stay in Stanford under him when Stanford is one of top schools in the country academically? Virginia obviously is also up there academically.
And yes i understand the professional swimmers can get endorsements and sponsorships. But how much and how long will these last.
Amy Chow, a gymnast from 1996 Olympics is now a successful doctor,… Read more »
I think “for the most part” is the key phrase.
You are right “for the most part,” but swimmers like Claire and Regan and Kate Douglass have $5 million + in career earnings potential before they turn 30, residuals after they turn 30, and a lot of carer paths available to them if they don’t want to be doctors.
Yes, I’m sure Chow will make more wages vs. endorsements from age 30-60 as a doctor than she did from ages 16-24 as a gymnast, but man if you can bank a few million before age 24, the returns on that investment can go a long way (especially a long way toward *paying for medical school*).
(And of course, we all… Read more »
WHERE ON EARTH are you pulling “$5 million + in career earnings potential before they turn 30” from? lol.
If you win multiple Olympic gold medals, you can for sure make that much money. And Claire’s ceiling is easily 6-8 Olympic gold medals.
Ledecky’s TYR deal was worth “at least $1 million per year” and she claims to turn down $5 million annually in endorsements. ANNUALLY. She’s a cut above, but in the world of NIL, a swimmer with multiple gold medals can definitely earn $5 million from 18-29 (12 years) and three Olympic cycles, even before you start adding up prize money, Operation Gold money, appearance fees, speaking fees, etc.
Have you all ever done an article on annual salaries for both global and domestic pro stars? Maybe a top 20 list of both?
I’m sure not everyone would divulge their pay, but I think it would be super interesting for the general swimming world to know where our stars rank vs. say NFL stars or European soccer stars. Guessing nobody is pulling Christian Ronaldo money.
Also could be a great both carrot and/or caution for those swimmers considering going Pro at any age. Versus say taking an NCAA scholarship.
It also would be very interesting to see what the earning difference is between the men and women stars of our sport (is there a US Soccer… Read more »
We’d love to, but it’s basically impossible to get a wholistic view of any one athlete’s take. You can get bits and pieces sometimes and extrapolate, but everything is a secret in this sport.
Wonder if this will change with the continuing evolution of NIL money. Where the younger generation almost use their massive social media incomes as advertising how much they are making to gain new sources of revenue as reason to also sponsor.
Be very interesting also to see the difference in salaries in 3-5 yrs of the “pretty pros” vs the “real pros” and what part of the market share they will compete for.
And how businesses like speedo/arena for example respond if they no longer perhaps are the pro money drivers for contracts that they were if other revenue streams emerge that are more social media driven.
You can tell it’s mostly young folks who comment here because they all think the only time you could possibly go to college is right after high school and that the only schools that set you up for a good life are the elite ones. You can get a good education later and life and degree from a school other than Stanford can be incredibly useful.
Fact check: You don’t need a Stanford degree to go to med school.
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Hey, the Wildcats are a great school!
Here is my thought. She leaves this year for her Olympic Redshirt and swims at TAC. Then turns full pro and doesn’t swim in College again
And score 23 gold medals in 5 Olympics, earning millions, and retire at 32 years old?
We are not talking about football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis or golf. How realistic is it for even elite swimmers to turn elite swimming into a long lasting career that will ensure a decent lifestyle? Would she be better off staying in school and finish that degree, so she can have a life outside of swimming after retirement?
Omg she can can finish a degree later if she wants to.