Swimming & Diving: Curzan captures third gold at World Aquatics Championships

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia sophomore Claire Curzan won gold in the 50M Backstroke on Thursday at the 2024 World Aquatics Championship in Doha, Qatar.

Curzan, who was seeded third in the final, swam a UVA-record time of 27.43, 0.02 faster than the silver medalist.

It was the second individual gold of the championship for Curzan, who won the 100M Backstroke on Tuesday. She will begin her quest for the trifecta on Friday, swimming in the 200M Backstroke preliminaries. She also won gold in the Mixed 4×100 Medley Relay and silver in the 100 Butterfly.

UVA alum Kate Douglass swam in the preliminaries and semifinals for both the 200M Breaststroke and 100 Freestyle. She had the second-fastest time in the breaststroke (2:23.17) and will be seeded fifth in the free (53.31). Both finals will take place on Friday afternoon.

Sophomore Jack Aikins logged the top time in the 200M Backstroke semifinals (1:56.32) to advance as the top seed in Friday’s final.

Preliminaries begin at 1:30 a.m. E.T. each day, with the final sessions starting at 11 a.m. E.T.

The World Aquatics Championships run through this Sunday.