LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentuckian shattered a swimming record making her the fastest swimmer in her age group. Charlotte Crush is the youngest girl ever to swim a 100-yard backstroke in under fifty seconds.

What You Need To Know

  • Charlotte Crush is the youngest girl ever to swim a 100-yard backstroke in under fifty seconds.

  • Crush swam the first leg of the 400 medley at the 2023 Speedo Winter Junior Championship and finished with a 49:53

  • She swims for the Lakeside Seahawks, a team that has produced 10 olympians

  • Last year Crush set the record for 100-yard backstroke for American girls 13-14 years old

Crush has been swimming since she was about 7-years-old and the sport runs — or swims — in her veins. 

“So, both of my parents and my aunt swam at college and Auburn University and then my oldest sister, Annabel, she started at ten-years-old and then my older two brothers, they started around the same time and maybe a little bit later,” said Crush, record holder for 100 yard backstroke for 15 to 16-year-old American girls. 

She trains with her team, the Lakeside Seahawks, at least nine times a week, doing exercises in and out of the pool.

“I really enjoy it. It’s fun. It’s something that I’m better at compared to other sports. I’m definitely not very coordinated out of the water, but I very much enjoy the competition and everything about it,” said Crush. 

All that training helped Crush set the record in the 100-yard backstroke for 13-14-year-old girls last year. In December she set the record for the 100 yard backstroke for 15-16-year-old girls during the 400 medley relay, finishing her leg of the race at 49:53. 

“I didn’t really think of it at the beginning and then I guess going back to my team, they’re all just congratulating everyone on the relay and it was just, it became a little bit more real. I don’t know, it was surprising,” said the 15-year-old athlete.

The Lakeside Seahawks began in 1928 and have produced 10 Olympians. Four of those 10 were led by the current head coach Mike Deboor.

“Her personally, it’s exciting and we’re fairly humble and I think we kind of take it in stride and that it’s great that we’re doing great things. But why do we do that? What’s next? How do we look forward to the future? What do we continue to move on to?” said Deboor. 

Just like her coach, Crush has her eyes set on what’s next

“I’m just gonna keep doing the best I can in and out of the water and see where that takes me. So I guess we’ll see,” she shared. 

Deboor said the team will be training and competing for most of the upcoming months and in June they will be off to Olympic trials.

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