ASU swimming recruit Charli Brown has never been to the U.S., but that didn't stop her from committing to a college nearly 8,000 miles away from her home in New South Wales, Australia.
The balance of a new life in a different country will be a challenge for Brown, but she doesn't seem too fazed — except for the lack of a beach. If anything, she's excited to get started.
“I’ve seen a couple of people from New South Wales that have gone to America, and just seeing how much fun they’ve had ... it’s not just studying, it's everything,” Brown said.
Growing up just 10 minutes away from the beach with three younger brothers, Brown has played a number of sports growing up, including soccer, dance, netball —which is similar to basketball — and surf lifesaving, a competitive sport that imitates lifeguards' drills and rescues on a beach.
But when it came to swimming, the future Sun Devil began when she was six months old.
“We’ve always swam, all of us, and when we were little it never really had been competitive with something that, we kind of just did what we wanted, but then we'd always be out the back like playing soccer,” Brown said. “I would always be in the water at the beach because we lived right across the road."
Brown is ranked No. 39 on a recruitment ranking for women in the class of 2020 that span the globe from Swimcloud.com, a college swimming ranking site. She was also on the Junior World’s Swim Team for Australia this past season that traveled to compete in Budapest, Hungary.
After multiple calls with ASU assistant coach Rachel Stratton-Mills, Brown verbally committed in May without even visiting the campus.
“I talked to Rachel (Stratton-Mills) and met all the girls on the team and it just clicked," Brown said. "I just knew that it was where I needed to go."
Back at school, Brown just finished up the Australian equivalent of finals, HSAs, for her senior year of high school this past week. But she believes that her greatest accomplishment this year was not in the pool or academically. Instead, it was in the music room.
“I really wanted to be ranked first in my music class, and I did it,” Brown said. “That's probably my biggest thing because I wanted people to know that I don't just swim, but I can do other stuff, too.”
Her five-year training partner Kai van Kool elaborated on Brown's commitment to achieving her goals.
"She will always have her head down and she’ll always be focused on the prize at the end," van Kool said.
Coach and director of Swimming New South Wales Justin Rothwell echoed a similar sentiment about Brown's drive and dedication.
"Charli’s nature is definitely very humble and will let actions speak louder than words. However, in any situation and in our group, we have many champion lifesavers men who are elite competitors and male swimmers," Rothwell said. "They are all much taller and stronger than Charli, but she regularly beats them in swim practice. Plus, they all fear being put next to her when we race in practice."
She was supposed to join the Sun Devils this past January, but with the coronavirus pandemic, she found herself unable to make it to the U.S., pushing her move to the summer.
Brown said her long-term goal is to represent Australia's swimming team in the Olympics.
“Keep getting faster, which means, keep enjoying training. That's my main goal, keeping on like wanting to train and being happy to push my body to its limits,” Brown said.
Reach the reporters lhertz@asu.edu and oliviaeisenhauersports@gmail.com and follow @laurenrachell_ and @o_eisenhaueron Twitter.
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