Rick Curl  

Rick Curl founded the Curl-Burke Swim Club (formerly the Curl Swim Club) in 1978. In addition to operating Curl Burke, Coach Curl has coached on the summer league, high school, and university levels. Coach Curl is serving his second term on the Board of Directors of the American Swim Coaches Association, and is a Lifetime Member of the World Swim Coaches Association. In 1994, Coach Curl was honored as ASCA Coach of the Year by the American Swim Coaches Association.

Curl-Burke has grown from one site of 150 swimmers in 1978 to its present size of nearly 950 swimmers training in ten locations in the Washington, DC area. Thirty-eight professional coaches teach and train all levels of swimming - from Learn to Swim through Masters.

While being one of the largest club teams in the USA, Curl-Burke has established an impressive list of accomplishments - unequalled in the USA - since 1989. The Curl-Burke Swim Club has won ten Senior National Championship Team Titles (since 1986) and eight Junior National Team Titles. Curl-Burke swimmers have set World Records ten times including six by current world record holder Mike Barrowman, two by current world record holder Tom Dolan, one by current American record holder (100m/breast) Ed Moses in the 400 Medley Relay and one by Mark Henderson (400 Medley Relay - Atlanta ‘96) who began his competitive swimming as a Curl-Burke age grouper (age 10) and continued to represent Curl-Burke until his retirement after the Atlanta Games. Currently, three Curl-Burke swimmers can be found on the World Record List.

Coach Curl is also proud of his team’s academic achievements. Last year 15 Curl-Burke swimmers were honored as USS Scholastic All Americans. No other team had a larger number!

The Sydney Olympics were a huge success for the Curl-Burke Swim Club. Between Tom Dolan with one World Record and one American record, and Ed Moses with one World Record and a Silver Medal (100m/breast), only four countries; USA, Australia, Italy and Netherlands, captured more medals.