Local Swimmer Trains for Even More Success
On a wet and rainy Friday night, you don’t usually imagine kids swimming, but the kids of Clovis Swim Club won’t let a little rain get in the way of having practice to get faster. One girl, in particular, has dreams not even a hurricane can stop. Meet Claire Tuggle.
At just twelve years old, she has already held five national records in swimming. She has held records in the 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 400 and 200 freestyle long course meters (LCM), and the 500 freestyle short course yards (SCY). Out of the five records she has broken while as a ten-and-under age group swimmer, she still holds three of them. This seventh grader at Granite Ridge Intermediate School has no intention of stopping anytime soon. She has her sights set on even more records.
“I’m half a second off the 200 free short course,” Claire says. “And then I’m really close in the 500 free too.”
As young as Claire may be, her journey in swimming actually started eight years ago at the age of four. Her mom worked at the Fig Garden Swim and Racket Club, where Claire and her brother got to swim for free while their mom worked.
Claire then moved on to the Yosemite Marlins Swim Club where she found her national level success.
“In short course Junior Olympics, she broke a minute in her 100 free and the whole pool was like ‘Woah,'” says Jules Tuggle, Claire’s mother. “Both my husband and I are like I think that was maybe a good thing. I don’t really know, and then they said over the intercom ‘:59’ whatever it was, ‘making Claire Tuggle the fastest nine-year-old currently swimming in the United States of America.’ Both my husband and I were like ‘What?'”
Picture Courtesy: Jules Tuggle
Knowing Claire had talent that exceeds the average, she and her family switched teams and joined Clovis Swim Club, where Claire started training with head age coach Mark Bennett and his advanced age group of swimmers.
“Honestly, I was pretty intimidated,” Bennett says. “I’m used to having swimmers that don’t have records and helping them achieve records versus swimmers that have records and are looking to achieve even more.”
But as time went on, Coach Mark found it fun to coach someone with elite level abilities and be able to push her to where things might start to get difficult.
Claire is training for the National Club Swimming Association (NCSA) Junior Nationals in March held in Florida. But she has her eye on something even bigger. She hopes to be able to compete in the Olympics in 2020 and 2024.
“That’s all I ever think about,” Claire says.