Clary Bypasses Senior Year to Focus on London Olympics
8/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming & Diving
Aug. 24, 2010
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif./Riverside Poly) of the University of Michigan men's swimming and diving team will bypass his senior season to turn pro and continue training for the 2012 Olympics in London, head coach Mike Bottom announced on Tuesday (Aug. 24). Clary will train under former U-M head coach Jon Urbanchek (1982-2004) with the Fullerton Aquatics Sports Team.
"It is a great opportunity for Tyler," Bottom said. "Financially, it is unbelievable. I had a chance to talk to the head coach of USA Swimming, who gave me his word that Tyler will get a scholarship to continue his education at Michigan, most likely after the 2012 Olympics. Tyler is committed to doing that and is still committed to supporting the team at Michigan."
Clary's decision came on the heels of a three silver medal performance at the 2010 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships. A 2010 national champion in the 400-yard individual medley, Clary earned 10 NCAA All-America distinctions and was the 2009 NCAA Swimmer of the Year. A dominant force at the conference level, the two-time defending Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships won 12 titles during his career. He owns six individual and relay school records.
"My time at Michigan was great, and it will be something that I will never forget," Clary said. "I will definitely come back to visit and come to football games because there is a reason I came to Michigan in the first place. It is a great university and I will always represent it.
"I feel like I accomplished a lot of great things over the past three years. But I think that it is time to take the next step and represent Michigan on an international level," he continued.
Michigan is coming off a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships and a second-place finish at the Big Ten Championships.
"He is going to be hard to replace, but we will be up for the challenge," Bottom said. "It happens in other sports more often than in swimming where you lose an athlete because of this. But every now and then, you get an athlete like Tyler who is good enough to have the option to turn professional. While we will miss him, we are very excited for his potential moving forward. We have a great team coming in. Our freshman class has a ton of potential and the sophomore class has continued to improve."
Contact: Ryan Sosin (734) 763-4423
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