RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – Richmond native Charlie Swanson is basking in the glow of his swimming success at the 2024 Paris Games.
The 26-year-old is taking home gold and silver with Team USA in relay events.
Swanson tells 12 On Your Side’s Sarah Chakales that going to the Olympics was always a dream.
”I think everyone my age was kind of inspired by the Beijing Phelps performance,” he said.
Sitting on his family’s back porch, Swanson reflects on a whirlwind summer.
From qualifying in the 100-meter breaststroke at the US Olympic Team trials in Indianapolis in mid-June, with a personal best time of 59.16 seconds, to competing for Team USA swimming in the preliminary relays.
“Luckily they trusted me enough to be on the prelims relays, which that was, I think, the most nerve-wracking part because I had never been on an international relay before, especially at the Olympics,” he said.
Swanson helped the team clinch both a gold and silver medal in his first-ever Olympics!
“It was super exciting. Kinda giving high fives to the other people who were on the prelims relays too,” he said. “I think my friend was like, ‘Charlie Swanson, Olympic gold medalist.’ I was like- I’m a pretty shy person, so I was like ‘yeah.’ I was definitely proud, and it’s fun to be officially coined an Olympic medalist.”
Swanson started summer swimming in Richmond at age 5 and then joined NOVA in 8th grade, where he honed his swimming abilities.
He swam four years at the University of Michigan before going pro.
“That’s the whole focus of every four years. I mean, you try to make the World’s Team every summer or the big international trip,” he said. “But definitely at the back of everyone’s mind is like, how much further away is the Olympics?”
In Michigan, he met a fellow swimmer who will soon become his wife.
Swanson, already on top of the world, says he popped the question on Thursday.
And as for the Los Angeles games in 2028, he says anything is possible.
As for now, Swanson says he wants to enjoy the post-Olympics high a bit longer and, of course, celebrate his recent engagement before heading back to Michigan.
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