Monday, July 26, 2021
From Trials Underdog to Olympic Gold Medalist
Brooks Curry spent the past year training with one mantra bouncing around in his mind: Shock the world. The idea that he was an underdog, that he was overlooked, motivated him throughout his sophomore season at Louisiana State University, made him want to prove himself.
Curry shocked many people by qualifying for Team USA’s 4x100 freestyle relay with a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming despite entering the meet seeded 15th. But his success wasn’t a shock to many who know him well. His becoming the first LSU swimmer to represent the U.S. was just the next step in his swimming journey.
“We did see it,” Dynamo Swim Club head coach Ian Murray said. “You knew what you saw, you knew what he was capable of doing. It was just when would these things come to fruition.”
Curry making the Olympics could be considered something of a surprise. After all, there was a reason people talked about the chances of other sprint freestylers to represent the U.S.
Curry’s personal best in the 100-yard freestyle coming out of high school was 44.53. He and Murray struggled to drum up much interest from colleges despite his drastic improvement during his high school career. His best time as a junior was 46.63 and 48.52 as a sophomore.
Curry rewarded LSU by breaking school records in the 50-, 100-, and 200-yard freestyle events his freshman year at the Southeastern Conference Championships, going 19.39, 41.81, and 1:32.43, respectively. Although the coronavirus pandemic kept him from competing at the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving National Championships last year, he had established himself as one of the best sprint freestylers in the country.
His early success at LSU led Curry on Jan. 19, 2020, the day before his 19th birthday, to set a goal to reach the 2024 Olympics, which he wrote on a piece of paper. After he continued to improve as a sophomore—he finished in the top 10 at NCAAs in the 50 and 100, bettering his school records in both races—he changed his goal to reaching this year’s Olympics.
Curry accomplished his goal by going a 48.19, dropping more than eight-tenths of a second from his entry time and holding off a group of four swimmers that included gold medalist Ryan Held.
“It was awesome,” Curry said. “It was unbelievable, like a childhood dream of mine coming true. I was like, ‘Wow, this really happened.’ It’s taken a long time to really sink in.”
He then went somewhat viral by wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts, or jorts, with the letters LSU down the right leg and an LSU logo, a head of a tiger, on the left leg. He and several of his teammates wore jorts at practice thinking they were funny. A few days before Trials, Curry decided it’d be “sick” if he wore a pair of jorts with a tiger head on them at the meet.
“We went down to the thrift store, got some jeans, cut ’em up, and we did a tiger head on it,” he said. “We spent a lot of time on it to make sure it looked good. We knew if it was going to be on camera it had to look good.”
Curry said people began asking if he could make a pair for them, which requires about a day and a half of work, but he said no. He was busy preparing for the Olympics, busy preparing to keep shocking the people who underestimate what he’s capable of accomplishing.
“I’m swimming fast now,” Curry said. “Feel good. Mentally prepared. I’m super-pumped. I’m just really excited to be on the relay with the best guys in the world.”
That mental preparedness came to fruition, as Curry led off the 4x100m freestyle relay during the event's prelims at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. He and his teammates finished in 3:11.33, putting the U.S. as the second seed heading into the finals the next morning. A quick night's rest later, the U.S. secured the gold in the final, giving Curry his first Olympic medal via his prelim swim.
At the end of the night's final, Caeleb Dressel, who replaced Curry in the final, ran over to the stands and tossed his gold medal right into the hands of Curry.
"I had the easiest job last night out of everyone here, I got to watch (the prelim) on TV, so I felt like he deserved that a little more than me," Dressel said when asked why he gave Curry the medal. "Starting off the meet (in a 4x100m freestyle relay), I couldn't imagine having to shake the nerves off like that. So he's got it."
"I thought that was the coolest thing ever, it was incredibly nice of him to share that moment with me," Curry said. "I had no idea (Dressel was going to give his medal to Curry), I was just at the top of the stands and somebody said, 'where's Brooks?' Then Caeleb was down there and was giving the motion that he was going to toss it up here.
"It means the world, it is the biggest honor to compete for the USA and be able to say I'm a gold medalist is the biggest honor ever."
Curry's journey to Olympic stardom may have been one of an underdog to the outside world, but to Curry, it was something he knew he was capable of.
Curry shocked many people by qualifying for Team USA’s 4x100 freestyle relay with a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming despite entering the meet seeded 15th. But his success wasn’t a shock to many who know him well. His becoming the first LSU swimmer to represent the U.S. was just the next step in his swimming journey.
“We did see it,” Dynamo Swim Club head coach Ian Murray said. “You knew what you saw, you knew what he was capable of doing. It was just when would these things come to fruition.”
Curry making the Olympics could be considered something of a surprise. After all, there was a reason people talked about the chances of other sprint freestylers to represent the U.S.
Curry’s personal best in the 100-yard freestyle coming out of high school was 44.53. He and Murray struggled to drum up much interest from colleges despite his drastic improvement during his high school career. His best time as a junior was 46.63 and 48.52 as a sophomore.
Curry rewarded LSU by breaking school records in the 50-, 100-, and 200-yard freestyle events his freshman year at the Southeastern Conference Championships, going 19.39, 41.81, and 1:32.43, respectively. Although the coronavirus pandemic kept him from competing at the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving National Championships last year, he had established himself as one of the best sprint freestylers in the country.
His early success at LSU led Curry on Jan. 19, 2020, the day before his 19th birthday, to set a goal to reach the 2024 Olympics, which he wrote on a piece of paper. After he continued to improve as a sophomore—he finished in the top 10 at NCAAs in the 50 and 100, bettering his school records in both races—he changed his goal to reaching this year’s Olympics.
Curry accomplished his goal by going a 48.19, dropping more than eight-tenths of a second from his entry time and holding off a group of four swimmers that included gold medalist Ryan Held.
“It was awesome,” Curry said. “It was unbelievable, like a childhood dream of mine coming true. I was like, ‘Wow, this really happened.’ It’s taken a long time to really sink in.”
He then went somewhat viral by wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts, or jorts, with the letters LSU down the right leg and an LSU logo, a head of a tiger, on the left leg. He and several of his teammates wore jorts at practice thinking they were funny. A few days before Trials, Curry decided it’d be “sick” if he wore a pair of jorts with a tiger head on them at the meet.
“We went down to the thrift store, got some jeans, cut ’em up, and we did a tiger head on it,” he said. “We spent a lot of time on it to make sure it looked good. We knew if it was going to be on camera it had to look good.”
Curry said people began asking if he could make a pair for them, which requires about a day and a half of work, but he said no. He was busy preparing for the Olympics, busy preparing to keep shocking the people who underestimate what he’s capable of accomplishing.
“I’m swimming fast now,” Curry said. “Feel good. Mentally prepared. I’m super-pumped. I’m just really excited to be on the relay with the best guys in the world.”
That mental preparedness came to fruition, as Curry led off the 4x100m freestyle relay during the event's prelims at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. He and his teammates finished in 3:11.33, putting the U.S. as the second seed heading into the finals the next morning. A quick night's rest later, the U.S. secured the gold in the final, giving Curry his first Olympic medal via his prelim swim.
At the end of the night's final, Caeleb Dressel, who replaced Curry in the final, ran over to the stands and tossed his gold medal right into the hands of Curry.
"I had the easiest job last night out of everyone here, I got to watch (the prelim) on TV, so I felt like he deserved that a little more than me," Dressel said when asked why he gave Curry the medal. "Starting off the meet (in a 4x100m freestyle relay), I couldn't imagine having to shake the nerves off like that. So he's got it."
"I thought that was the coolest thing ever, it was incredibly nice of him to share that moment with me," Curry said. "I had no idea (Dressel was going to give his medal to Curry), I was just at the top of the stands and somebody said, 'where's Brooks?' Then Caeleb was down there and was giving the motion that he was going to toss it up here.
"It means the world, it is the biggest honor to compete for the USA and be able to say I'm a gold medalist is the biggest honor ever."
Curry's journey to Olympic stardom may have been one of an underdog to the outside world, but to Curry, it was something he knew he was capable of.