Booyah!
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Arent redshirts in pools called Life Guards? Clean it up LRA swimming
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Yeah, though I find it kind of wild they were referring to Curzan as a āgenerational talentā while Katie Douglass was still at UVA.
I mean, I get that they were talking about Curzanās prep career and the knock is that, despite being an NCAA champ, she didnāt really get better at Stanford. But its still kind of odd given how dominant Douglass was (first time Iāve said that in past-tense. Kind of sad about it).
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Probably should be on the swimming thread, but Curzanās pre-college resume included something like five NAG records. Swimswam called her the best Hs recruit in more than a decade. But yes, Douglass is the best female collegiate swimmer in years (probably since Caulkins), and up there overall with Dressel.
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Douglass is on my Rushmore of UVA athletes. No denying what losing her means and by no means is Curzan a replacement . But I am always happy to hear that we are picking up an Olympian to add to the team.
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Prior to declaring her intention to transfer, Curzan had indicated she would take an Olympic redshirt from college competition. Itās unclear whether she now plans compete for Virginia during this upcoming collegiate season, but she is expected to be enrolled in classes in Charlottesville, Va., this fall.
https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/claire-curzan-transferring-to-university-of-virginia/
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āGenerational talentā is definitely an overused term in just about every sport. For womenās swimming, I would probably say that only Katie Ledecky is a generational talent among current swimmers in the world.
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I think I read elsewhere that even setting aside her initial plan to redshirt this year for the Olympics, she entered the transfer portal too late to be eligible for the upcoming season without a waiver. But donāt quote me on that.
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Without a waiver, yes. But Emma Weyant did the same last year when she transferred to Florida. She received a waiver and was eligible to compete beginning second semester of last year (so for SECs and NCAAs.
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Nah ā¦ Douglas just swam 2 finals at Worlds that no other man or woman has done. Maybe generational not enough?
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I guess it depends on your definition of generational talent. Mine would include dominating in multiple individual events. Ladecky, while not winning at as many distances as she used to is still wining the longer distances by several body lengths. Katie Douglas is the most versatile female swimmer in the world right now, but finishing 4th in the 100M free and 2nd in the 200m breaststroke is unprecedented on the same night, but not dominant in either event.
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Itās so subjective. Douglass was the #1 or 2 recruit her senior year, so obviously incredibly talented through her teens.
She has worked her way into one of the greatest college swimmers ever and become world-level elite, but many would probably say she needs to go even bigger than her World Champs performance at the Paris Olympics to be considered āgenerationalā.
In another highly subjective overview, SwimSwam has her #9 in its World Champs performance rankings.
Kate has proven doubters wrong every step of the way, so Iām excited to see her continue.
Curzan has been considered a generational talent for a long time and set multiple national age-group records, winning Olympic medals at 17.
Question is whether she has peaked like many swimming prodigies do or whether she can continue to get even better.
My bet is that under DeSorbo and UVA, especially practicing every day with Douglass and the Walshes, among all the other amazing women, she will.
Kate is (very loosely) kind of like Steph Curry - you wonder a little how she got there, but has become largely dominant and does everything at a world-class level. You can count on her every time. And sheās still improving, so maybe this Curry analogy has to cross into golf now, too!
Curzan is kind of like a young Lebron - has looked the part and crushed everyone for a long time, but you donāt know how long it will last. Hopefully she keeps maturing.
Whether the hoops analogy makes any sense, let me know!
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Well said. I definitely didnāt want to diminish Kate Douglassās accomplishments so far. One of the greatest NCAA swimmers ever. And good chance to win multiple gold medals in Paris, which would be super cool since sheās a UVA grad.
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Apologies if there is already a thread for this, but with the Olympic year approaching rapidly, I just wanted to call some attention to how crazily incredible our womenās swimming program is. The US Open is happening as we speak, and Kate Douglass won both the 200 IM and 50 Free (20 minutes apart!), A Walsh got second in the 200 IM, and G Walsh got fourth in the 50 free.
Realistically, we could have somewhere around 5 (possibly even more) recent grads / current students on the US womenās team in Paris.
Niche world, but if anyone else happens to follow the team, would love to discuss!
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That would be really nice for UVA with the amount of TV coverage swimming gets.
Unreal. Sets her up nicely for Paris.
https://x.com/braden_keith/status/1759266135130755076?s=46&t=PzMfboQ4ofEF6ToybLUcpg
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